LAWRENCE  J.  GUTTER 

Collection  of  Chicogoono 

THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   ILLINOIS 
AT  CHICAGO 

The  University  Library 


I  I 


tljotfe  Cfjicagoan*  to 
tofjom  an  ounce  of 
prebention  is  better  tfjan 
a  pounb  of  proclamation, 
this  little  booti  ts  bebi= 
cateb  bp  tfje  autfjor. 


COPYRIGHTED   1916 
BY   HENRY   BARRETT  CHAMBERLIN 


Introduction 

IN  PENNING  these  pages  of  Chicago's  modern  robber  barons  of  the 
crime  trusts,  I  confess  to  a  motive  beyond  and  above  the  making  of  a 
few  dollars  for  myself.     I  would,  so  it  please  my  readers,  ride  as  a 
second  Paul  Revere.     I  would  cry  my  warning  through  the  midnight 
streets — not  midnight  as  to  hour,  but  in  their  slumberous  unconscious- 
ness and  disregard  of  the  army  of  crime  that  even  now  is  planning  an 
assault  upon  the  citadel  of  law  and  order. 

"Awake,  men  of  Chicago!"  I  would  cry.  "While  you  sleep,  crime 
works.  It  is  marshalling  its  regiments  for  the  big  battle.  It  has 
sworn  to  retrieve  the  last  three  years  of  loss.  You  had  little,  if  any, 
part  in  inflicting  those  losses;  crime  counts  upon  your  continued  in- 
difference for  its  chance  to  spring  once  more  into  the  saddle.  Awake ! 
Awake!  Awake! 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  some  of  my  readers  may  criticize  this  small 
book  on  the  ground  that  it  may  become,  in  effect,  a  campaign  docu- 
ment for  Maclay  Hoyne.  If  such  criticism  befall  I  shall  not  be  dis- 
pleased. For  it  is  near  my  heart  that  Hoyne  be  returned  to  office.  I 
frankly  espouse  his  cause  for  I  regard  him  as  the  best  state's  attorney 
Cook  County  and  Chicago  ever  had.  As  former  editorial  head  of  a 
Chicago  newspaper,  and  in  other  capacities,  I  have  had  some  special 
opportunities  for  seeing  the  inside  of  his  work.  It  has  been  good,  clear 
through.  He  has,  in  my  estimation,  done  more  to  intimidate  crime 
than  any  of  his  predecessors;  has  been  the  first,  in  fact,  to  bring  the 
fear  of  the  law  home  to  the  chieftains  of  crime.  In  addition  to  his 
astonishing  array  of  convictions  he  has  so  systematized  his  work  that 
the  county  jail  and  the  dockets  are  in  a  less  crowded  condition  now 
than  at  any  time  in  the  last  twenty-four  years.  Moreover,  though  the 
earnings  of  the  office  have  exceeded  two,  three  or  four  times  the  earn- 
ings of  his  immediate  predecessors,  the  receipts  from  fines,  fees  and 
forfeitures  have,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Cook  County,  been 
turned  over  to  the  county  treasurer.  Hoyne  could  have  retained  these 
funds  but  he  did  not.  Hence,  in  sounding  my  Paul  Revere,  I  find  it 


MACLAY  HOYNE 

States  Attorney  foj^the  County  of  Cook 
Withdrawn 

Biblical  Institute 


well  within  the  purport  of  my  message  to  add  this  sentence:  "The 
first  and  best  step  the  people  can  take  in  any  campaign  of  prepared- 
ness against  the  hosts  of  crime  is  to  organize  for  the  retention  of 
Maclay  Hoyne  as  state's  attorney." 

Modern  crime,  like  modern  business,  tends  toward  centralization, 
organization  and  commercialization.  Ours  is  a  business  nation.  Our 
criminals  apply  business  methods.  They  are  the  hardest  criminals  in 
the  world  to  combat.  No  longer  do  we  have  to  deal  with  the  indi- 
vidual. The  men  and  women  of  evil  have  formed  trusts.  In  this 
book  you  will  find  some  small  account  of  the  men  and  methods  of  ten 
of  these  outlaw  organizations.  Since  Hoyne  came  into  office  he  has, 
among  many  other  activities,  uncovered  the  arson  trust  and  sent  its 
leaders  to  prison ;  exposed  the  secrets  of  the  seers  and  routed  the 
clairvoyant  trust;  annihilated  the  confidence  game  and  wiretapping 
trust,  and  stamped  out  the  pickpocket  and  horse-stealing  trusts. 

Police  protection  was  the  one  element  essential  to  the  existence  of 
organized  crime.  The  collusion  between  grafting  police  officials  and 
the  various  crime  trusts  was  fully  exposed  by  Hoyne  and  the  criminal 
police  officials  convicted  and  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary.  This  not 
only  destroyed  the  real  cause  of  organized  crime,  but  relieved  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  police  force,  recognized  to  be  honest,  from  the  menace 
of  criminal  control,  and  gave  to  individual  policemen  the  chance  of 
,£*  honest  service,  free  from  suspicion  of  complicity  in  corruption. 

First  among  all  the  public  prosecutors  of  the  land,  I  would  place 
Hoyne,  of  Cook  County.  He  has  conducted  more  successful  prosecu- 
tions of  crime  than  either  former  Governor  Folk  as  district  attorney 
of  St.  Louis  or  Governor  Withman  as  district  attorney  of  New  York. 
He  is  honest,  fearless  and  efficient.  The  forces  of  evil  hate  him. 
For  at  least  a  year  they  have  been  preparing  to  drive  him  out  of  office 
when  his  term  is  ended.  They  know  that  if  they  can  get  a  weak 
man  in  his  stead,  they  will  be  able  to  recover  all  the  ground  lost  by 
them  during  his  four  years  in  office,  and  to  strengthen  and  entrench 
themselves  as  never  before.  Hence  it  is  that  I  am  sounding  my 
warning. 

HENRY  BARRETT  CHAMBERLIN. 

o 


Three 


four 


CHAPTER  I 
Arson    Trust 

In  Which  the  Work  of  the  Fire-Bugs  Is  Uncovered  and  Chicago  Property 

Owners  Saved  Millions 

JOSEPH  CLARKE,  public  insurance  adjuster,  looked  appraisingly 
at  the  brothers,  Paul  and  Edward  Covitz,  woolen  merchants.  He 
was  not  in  doubt  as  to  the  object  of  their  call.  Like  other  adjusters 
in  Chicago's  arson  trust,  Clarke  had  found  it  necessary  to  meet  the 
keen  competition  by  putting  on  an  outside  man,  a  solicitor.  This  sales- 
man of  fires  had  reported  the  Covitzs  as  bankrupt. 

"So  you  two  want  a  fire?"  asked  Clarke. 

The  brothers  flinched.  "Well,"  said  Paul  Covitz  at  length,  "we 
want  our  place  to  go." 

Clarke  laughed.  "That's  the  regular  way  of  putting  it.  I  never 
knew  one  of  you  fellows  yet  who  could  say  'fire.'  Either  he  wants 
his  place  to  go,  or  he  wants  to  'sell  out  to  the  insurance  company.' " 

The  brothers  laughed. 

"What  kind  of  a  fire  do  you  want?"  asked  the  adjuster.  "A  still, 
a  blow-out,  a  closet  fire,  a  flash?" 

The  brothers  looked  puzzled.  Clarke  began  to  explain.  "A -still," 
he  said,  "is  a  fire  that  isn't  reported — often  doesn't  even  happen. 
Insurance  companies  frequently  settle  for  fires  of  that  kind." 

"Oh,  we  want  a  real  fire,"  interrupted  Edward  Covitz.  "Every- 
thing to  burn — everything." 

"Want  to  get  out  of  your  lease?"  asked  Clarke.  "It's  necessary  to 
burn  the  roof  off  for  that.  We  always  make  a  point  of  the  roof  in  a 
lease  proposition." 

"It  ain't  exactly  the  lease,"  began  Paul. 

"Ah,  then  woolens  are  going  out  of  fashion?"  smiled  the  adjuster. 
"It's  always  that  way — when  feathers  go  out,  then  we  have  a  crop  of 
feather  fires,  and  as  for  the  petticoats  when  the  tight  skirts  came  in, 
they  certainly  did  go  up  in  smoke.  Change  of  fashion  and  dull  times 
both  hit  the  insurance  companies  hard." 

The  brothers  inquired  how  a  fire  could  be  managed  safely.  Clarke 
explained.  He  was  sorry  the  Covitz  place  was  not  heated  by  a  stove; 
it  was  always  safe  to  start  the  blaze  where  the  heater  might '  be 
blamed.  He  also  suggested  starting  the  fire  in  the  store  adjoining 
the  Covitz  store  and  letting  it  burn  through,  thus  avoiding  all  chance 
of  suspicion.  But  there  was  a  fire  wall. 

"Anyway,"  he  concluded,  "leave  all  that  to  me.  I  have  the  best 
torch  in  the  business,  John  Danies.  I  had  an  awful  fight  to  get  him — 
there's  so  much  competition  among  adjusters." 

Five 


Clarke  agreed  to  manage  all  the  details — fix  the  firm's  books,  check 
up  the  policies,  get  additional  insurance  and  settle  the  loss.  He 
explained  that  his  organization  included  several  houses  that  would 
send  out  worthless  stocks  of  goods  or  false  and  padded  inventories. 
As  to  the  charge,  that  would  be,  for  himself,  ten  per  cent  of  the 
insurance  collected,  and  another  ten  per  cent  for  the  torch. 

"But  how  can  we  get  enough  insurance  to  make  it  pay?"  asked 
Paul  Covitz. 

Clarke  laughed.  "Oh,"  he  said,  "the  insurance  companies  will  take 
anything.  Why  the  official  records  in  New  York  show  that  a  guy 
recently  got  $127,000  insurance  on  a  gas  range,  a  cuspidor,  two  sixteen- 
cent  curtains  and  a  second-hand  table — all  worth  $3.44." 

When  Danies  arrived  from  New  York,  Clarke  explained  to  him 
that  the  Covitz  brothers  wanted  a  nice  job — nothing  to  incriminate. 
The  woolen  merchants  occupied  the  ground  floor  at  20  South  Fifth 
Avenue.  Danies  went  over  to  get  the  lay  of  the  land.  "I'm  from  the 
insurance  underwriters,"  he  explained  to  Paul  Covitz. 

The  Covitz  were  affable.  They  said  they  had  heard  good  reports 
of  Danies'  work.  They  showed  him  around  the  place.  "Remember," 
said  Edward,  "the  ceiling  must  come  down.  Everything  is  to  be  all 
mixed  up."  In  parting,  they  gave  him  the  woolen  for  a  suit  of  clothes — 
it  was  a  shame  to  burn  nice  suitings. 

Danies  told  Clarke  he  thought  a  fifty  gallon  barrel  of  gasoline 
would  do  the  trick  nicely.  Clarke  doubled  the  amount,  and  suggested 
that  alcohol  be  added  to  cover  the  gasoline  fumes.  He  agreed  to  pay 
Danies  $700  with  $50  more  if  the  blaze  was  a  success.  "I  will  get 
$2,000  for  the  job,"  Clarke  explained,  "but  $300  of  it  must  go  to  the 
man  who  delivers  the  gas." 

On  election  day,  November  5th,  1912,  the  Covitz  brothers  aston- 
ished Sam  Berkowitz,  the  clerk,  and  Abe  Levinberg,  the  errand  boy, 
by  granting  them  a  holiday.  That  afternoon  a  wagon  delivered  two 
big  boxes  at  the  rear  of  the  Covitz  store.  James  Ryan,  caretaker  of 
the  building,  offered  to  help  unload  the  boxes  but  his  offer  was 
declined  rather  brusquely.  He  noticed  that  the  Covitzs  did  not  roll 
the  boxes  over  in  the  usual  way,  but  pushed  and  dragged  them  in. 

That  evening  at  6  o'clock  Danies,  the  torch,  inserted  a  key  in  the 
Covitz'  door  and  entered.  The  brothers  were  not  there  so  he  waited. 
He  wanted  them  to  be  in  the  store  when  he  opened  the  boxes,  so  that 
the  noise  would  not  arouse  suspicion.  Later  they  came  and  measured 
goods  in  the  front  room  while  he  got  the  two  barrels  of  gasoline  open. 
Then  Paul  and  Edward  left.  "Good  luck!"  they  called  back  at  the 
door. 

With  a  bucket  the  fire-bug  dashed  the  fluid  over  walls  and  ceiling 
and  saturated  the  goods  and  fixtures.  But  in  his  zeal  he  outdid  him- 
self and,  overcome  by  the  gasoline  fumes,  lay  unconscious  for  several 
hours.  Upon  reviving  he  poured  out  the  second  barrel  and  put  on 
his  overcoat.  He  opened  the  rear  door  and  got  out  a  match.  Danies 


took  pride  in  his  work.  -He  had  spread  newspapers  over  the  floor  to 
prevent  the  sudden  gas  flame  from  scorching  the  boards.  He  had 
intended  to  cut  up  some  lamp  wicks  as  fuses  to  explode  the  gasoline. 
But  his  accident  had  shaken  his  nerve  and  he  was  in  a  hurry  to  be 
gone.  With  one  hand  on  the  door  he  lighted  the  match.  Instantly 
there  was  an  explosion  and  the  door  was  hurled  shut. 

Danies  tried  to  pull  it  open  but  the  gas  pressure  held  it  fast.  His 
overcoat  was  on  fire  and  the  flames  were  reaching  his  hands  and  face. 
He  remembered  the  fate  of  a  Chicago  torch  who  had  been  burned 
at  his  work  some  months  before.  Danies  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
die,  but  the  gas  pressure  had  now  become  so  great  that  it  blew  out 
the  front  of  the  building  with  a  force  that  shattered  the  windows 
across  the  street.  Danies  was  now  able  to  open  his  door  and  dashed 
into  the  alley.  Throwing  off  his  overcoat  he  ran,  beating  out  the 
flames  on  his  garments.  He  was  seen  from  the  Illinois  Staats-Zeitung. 

For  half  an  hour  the  fire  kept  the  firemen  at  a  distance.  Then  it 
subsided  and  they  were  able  to  investigate.  The  force  of  the  explosion 
had  aroused  suspicion.  Danies  had  overplayed  his  part.  The  smell 
of  gasoline  was  everywhere.  A  bolt  of  woolen  from  the  floor,  when 
brought  near  a  lantern,  burst  into  a  blue  flame — it  was  saturated.  The 
gasoline  barrels,  moreover,  by  the  mischance  that  so  often  overtakes 
the  incendiary,  had  not  been  burned,  nor  had  the  boxes  into  which 
they  fitted.  The  Covitz  brothers,  who  appeared  at  this  time,  simulat- 
ing surprise  and  consternation,  were  placed  under  arrest. 

Three  days  after  the  arrest  Clarke,  the  public  insurance  adjuster 
and  head  of  the  arson  syndicate,  called  up  Edward  J.  Raber,  one  of 
Hoyne's  assistant  state's  attorneys,  and  arranged  an  interview.  A 
third  man,  named  Nathan,  who  knew  Raber,  also  confided  to  him 
what  a  rich  fellow  Clarke  was  and  what  a  lot  of  business  he  could 
furnish  a  bright  young  lawyer.  At  the  first  meeting  Clarke  explained 
that  he  was  a  brother  Odd  Fellow  and  Mason  and  suggested  to  the 
assistant  state's  attorney  that  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  have  "no 
bill"  voted  and  the  Covitz  brothers  released.  At  a  third  meeting, 
which  actually  occurred  in  Raber's  own  office  in  the  criminal  court 
building,  Clarke  offered  the  attorney  $500  and  shoved  half  that  amount 
across  the  table.  Concealed  witnesses  had  seen  and  heard  what  was 
going  on  and  Clarke  was  arrested.  At  the  trial,  which  sent  all  three 
to  Joliet,  it  developed  that  the  Covitz  stock  had  been  insured  for  five 
times  its  value. 

The  Covitz  fire  gave  State's  Attorney  Hoyne  the  opportunity  he 
wanted.  The  operations  of  the  arson  trust  had  become  so  notorious 
before  he  came  into  office  that  his  first  official  act  had  been  to  start  a 
campaign  for  its  punishment.  In  the  ten  years  between  1897  and  1907 
the  population  of  the  city  had  increased  but  twenty-one  per  cent  but 
the  fire  losses  had  increased  eighty-four  per  cent.  In  the  five  years 
following,  the  business  had  become  even  more  systematized  and  by 

Seven 


1912  it  was  admitted  on  all  sides  that  half  the  city's  annual  loss  was 
due  to  incendiarism.  The  annual  tribute  paid  to  the  fire  bugs  by  the 
honestly  insured  throughout  the  country — estimated  from  the  total 
in  the  United  States  and  Canada  for  1911— was  figured  at  $257,000,000. 
It  is  the  policy  holders  and  not  the  companies  that  pay  the  incendiary's 
profits. 

Some  insurance  men  denied  the  existence  of  an  arson  trust  and 
laid  the  excessive  fire  losses  in  the  United  States— other  cities  faced 
conditions  similar  to  those  in  Chicago — to  frame  construction.  But 
Norway,  Sweden  and  southern  Germany  also  build  wooden  houses 
and  their  ratio  of  fires  to  ours  is  only  one  to  eight  or  thirteen. 

Blame  for  the  scandalous  condition  in  this  city  appeared  to  lie 
between  the  insurance  companies  and  the  prosecuting  authorities. 
The  companies  were  issuing  policies  without  inspection,  or  safeguard, 
or  investigation  to  find  out  the  character  of  the  person  asking  insur- 
ance. Questionable  fires  were  compromised  and  little  effort  made  to 
prosecute.  Brokers  also  liked  to  take  rotten  risks  because  their  com- 
missions were  so  much  higher — $50  for  a  safe  building  and  $250  for  a 
fire-trap.  Moreover,  arson  convictions  have  always  been  very  hard  to 
obtain,  as  the  evidence  is  usually  destroyed. 

In  1912  Chicago  had  4,410  fires,  seven  more  than  London  had  had 
in  1911.  Yet  the  records  of  the  criminal  court  disclosed  that  prior 
to  Hoyne's  administration  there  had  been  practically  no  prosecutions 
for  arson  in  Cook  County.  Investigation  of  the  docket  of  the  criminal 
court  from  1904  to  December,  1913,  showed  for  that  period  172  indict- 
ments for  this  crime,  and  only  three  convictions ;  and  in  the  case  of 
one  of  these  convictions  the  defendant  defaulted  upon  a  $5,000  bond, 
which  was  settled  for  the  sum  of  $100,  leaving  the  defendant  at  liberty. 
Whether  Clarke  and  other  arson  kings  had  in  any  way  brought  about 
this  showing  through  bribery  of  officials,  detectives  and  jurors,  does 
not  appear. 

Hoyne  set  to  work  to  drive  the  torches  out  of  Chicago.  The  guilty 
crowd  had  fled  the  city  as  soon  as  it  learned  an  investigation  was  to 
be  made.  Search  began  for  Dave  Korshak,  Jake  Schaffner,  Abe  Rat- 
ner,  Ben  Fink,  John  Danies,  Fred  Buckmeinster,  Felix  Melnick,  Ben 
Melnick,  the  Ross  brothers,  and  a  number  of  important  witnesses  who 
had  also  departed  from  Chicago.  Korshak,  Schaffner,  Fink  and  Danies 
were  the  "Big  Four."  Danies  and  Fink  were  located  and  returned  to 
Chicago,  and  gave  information  upon  which  eighty-six  indictments  were 
voted  against  owners  of  stores  who  arranged  for  the  arson  fires  and 
crooked  insurance  adjusters. 

After  considerable  investigation  information  was  obtained  that  the 
Melnick  brothers  were  in  Toronto,  under  assumed  names,  and  opera- 
tives were  sent  to  that  point  to  keep  the  general  delivery  constantly 
under  surveillance.  After  ten  days'  wait,  Ben  Melnick  was  picked  up 
at  the  general  delivery  window  of  the  Toronto  post  office.  A  search  of 

Eight 


his  effects  revealed  the  place  of  occupation  of  his  brother,  Felix,  who 
was  arrested  immediately  afterwards.  Both  were  tried  and  sent  to  the 
penitentiary. 

Abe  Ratner,  who  had  been  convicted  of  arson,  and  who  was  out  on 
bond,  awaiting  a  new  trial,  forfeited  his  bond,  and  disappeared.  He 
was  finally  located  on  a  ranch  in  Saskatchewan,  after  a  search  occupy- 
ing almost  a  year,  and  returned  to  Chicago.  He  was  later  tried  and 
sent  to  the  penitentiary.  The  Ross  brothers  were  located  at  Omaha, 
were  arrested,  and  through  some  influence  succeeded  in  getting  out  on 
bond  before  requisition  papers  were  received.  They  jumped  their 
bond.  They  were  afterwards  heard  of  in  South  Africa,  where  they 
probably  are  at  the  present  time. 

The  main  search  was  for  Dave  Korshak  and  Jake  Schaffner.  A 
woman  operative  succeeded  in  obtaining  quarters  in  Schaffner's  home, 
and  in  four  months'  time  he  was  located  in  London.  Detectives  had 
previously  located  Korshak  in  Shanghai,  China,  but  he  moved  from 
there  before  an  arrest  could  be  made.  Later  it  was  discovered  that  he 
had  gone  to  London,  and  had  joined  Schaffner.  Somewhat  later  the 
two,  despairing  of  eluding  longer  the  Chicago  authorities,  gave  them- 
selves up. 

As  a  result  of  this  campaign  seventeen  men  were  sentenced  to 
Joliet  for  terms  of  from  one  to  twenty  years.  Honest  property  owners 
in  Chicago  have  benefitted  very  greatly  by  the  breaking  up  of  the 
trust.  Fire  losses  in  Illinois  fell  »$4,000,000  a  year  and  insurance  rates 
in  Chicago  were  very  greatly  reduced,  the  premium  on  some  classes  of 
risks  being  cut  33%  per  cent. 

CHAPTER  II 
Clairvoyant  Trust 

Explains  How  Widow  McEldowney  and  Many  Others  Were  Victimized,  and 
How  the  Seers   Were  Brought   to  Book 

MRS.  HOPE  L.  McELDOWNEY,  widow,  of  West  Salem,  Wis., 
paused  before  the  door  of  Prof.  Charles  T.  Crane's  clairvoyant 
suite  at  204  North  State  Street,  glanced  at  the  advertisement 
which    she    had    clipped    from    her    paper    that    morning    in    one    of 
the  loop  hotels,  and  entered.    Mrs.  McEldowney  had  been  left  a  goodly 
sum  of  money  by  the  late  Mr.  McEldowney  and  wanted  to  place  it  ?o 
that  it  would  bring  in  an  income  more  in  keeping  with  her  ideals. 
Country  bankers  were  so  slow. 

Within,  Prof.  Crane's  parlors  quite  lived  up  to  her  expectations. 
The  air  was  heavy  with  some  Oriental  perfume.  There  were  rich 
Turkish  rugs  and  hangings  and  the  subdued  light  gave  one  an  awsome, 
"churchy"  feeling.  A  negro  attendant  bowed  the  widow  to  one  of  the 
big  soft  chairs  and  told  her  she  must  wait  her  turn,  but  that  it  would 
not  be  long.  There  were  other  women  present — well-dressed,  pleasant- 

Nine 


appearing  women.  They  were  talking  among  themselves.  From 
their  conversation  Mrs.  McEldowney  learned  they  were  all  widows, 
too,  and  all  worried  as  to  what  to  do  with  their  estates.  They  told  one 
another — and  Mrs.  McEldowney — quite  frankly  about  things.  Several 
introduced  themselves  and  Mrs.  McEldowney  could  do  no  less.  Soon 
she  was  exchanging  confidences. 

One  by  one  the  widows  were  allowed  to  enter  into  the  presence. 
Prof.  Crane  was  in  the  holy  of  holies,  far  away  behind  tapestried  hang- 
ings. Presently  a  ceremonious  gentleman,  a  touch  of  the  mystic  in  his 
face  and  manner,  came  to  Mrs.  McEldowney  and  assured  her  that  she 
would  not  be  kept  waiting  long. 

"It  is  customary."  he  explained,  "for  anyone  who  comes  here  for 
the  first  time  to  consult  the  spirit  world,  to  write  upon  a  sheet  of  paper 
her  name  and  address  and  those  questions  which  she  desires  to  ask 
the  dear  departed."  He  gave  the  widow  several  sheets  of  paper  and 
asked  her  to  write  while  he  stepped  from  the  room  for  a  moment, 
and  fold  the  paper  so  that  he  could  not  see  what  was  thereon. 

Upon  his  return  he  took  the  paper,  folded  as  it  was,  and  held  it 
against  his  forehead.  His  eyes  closed  and  he  seemed  as  one  in  a 
trance.  His  disengaged  hand  rose  with  solemn  gesture  and  he  made 
a  slow  and  profound  obesiance.  Then  his  eyes  opened  again,  he 
smiled  pleasantly  at  the  widow  and  said :  "I  suppose  you  don't  care 
for  this  memorandum  any  further?"  Mrs.  McEldowney  did  not,  of 
course,  and  the  gentleman  tore  the  folded  paper  into  several  pieces 
and  threw  them  into  the  open  grate  where  they  were  consumed.  Mrs. 
McEldowney  sat  for  a  few  moments  longer.  Then  she  was  summoned 
into  the  presence. 

To  her  astonishment  Prof.  Crane,  rousing  from  his  trance,  greeted 
her  by  name,  told  her  at  once  to  be  at  ease  concerning  her  son,  and 
warned  her  not  to  make  her  contemplated  visit  to  California  as 
calamity  was  sure  to  befall  her  there.  These  were  questions  she  had 
written  on  the  paper.  Wonderful !  she  thought. 

Prof.  Crane  perceived  at  once  that  some  evil  influence  hung  over 
Mrs.  McEldowney  and  that  she  would  be  a  happy  and  exceedingly 
prosperous  woman,  if  this  influence  could  be  removed.  He  promised 
to  interest  the  spirits  in  the  matter,  accepted  the  twenty  dollars,  and 
requested  the  widow  to  return  in  two  days. 

Upon  her  return  Prof.  Crane  saw  at  once  that  the  widow's  aura 
had  changed  completely.  He  assured  her  that  everything  would  be 
for  the  best  and  that  she  need  worry  no  further  if  she  had  only  some- 
one she  could  consult  about  her  financial  affairs.  Several  days  later, 
when  she  came  again,  the  professor  had  had  a  consultation  with  his 
father  and  an  uncle  who  were  both  on  the  board  of  trade  and  had  been 
moved  to  offer  their  expert  assistance.  Mrs.  McEldowney  handed  over 
$500  and  received  a  note  for  it,  the  professor  being  punctilious  in  the 
extreme  about  these  matters. 

Ten 


Eleven 


Ten  days  after  her  investment  the  widow  received  $121  interest 
on  her  $500.  Prof.  Crane  explained  that  it  was  a  very  conservative 
proposition,  bonds  that  were  exceptionally  safe  and  at  the  same  time 
more  profitable  than  any  other  investment.  The  professor  admitted 
that  James  J.  Hill  was  a  friend  of  the  family  and  had  made  some  sug- 
gestions. Mrs.  McEldowney  at  once  ordered  her  Wisconsin  bankers 
to  turn  her  farm  mortgages  into  cash.  She  handed  Prof.  Crane  a  draft 
for  $2,500  and  later  on  another  for  $12,500,  making  $15,500  in  all. 

The  widow  proved  to  be  exceptionally  favored  by  the  spirit  world. 
Not  only  did  she  receive  dividends  but  even  the  great  professor  came 
down  to  a  mere  human  plane  of  existence  and  took  her  out  to  cafes 
and  theaters  and  was  very  attentive — until  her  money  ran  out. 

Finding  the  studio  door  closed  to  her  then,  the  widow  at  last  real- 
ized that  she  had  been  swindled.  She  laid  the  case  before  the  detective 
bureau  and  was  very  courteously  asked  to  wait  while  an  investigation 
was  being  made.  She  waited — waited  for  weeks.  But,  no  matter  how 
often  she  went  back  to  the  bureau,  nothing  ever  seemed  to  have  been 

discovered  as  to  Prof.  Crane  and  her  thousands. 
****** 

Now  this  is  the  other  side  of  the  story  as  finally  ascertained  by 
State's  Attorney  Hoyne : 

In  the  summer  of  1911,  Christian  P.  Bertsche,  better  known  as 
"Barney"  Bertsche,  who  had  a  saloon  at  207  W'est  Randolph  Street, 
and  was  the  most  eminent  middle  man  in  the  business  of  Chicago 
crime,  representing  the  thieves,  thugs  and  confidence  artists  on  one 
hand,  and  crooked  officers  of  the  detective  bureau  on  the  other, 
arranged  with  his  police  friends  for  the  operation  of  certain  swindlers 
who  were  to  work  as  seers  and  clairvoyants. 

Bertsche  first  granted  a  clairvoyant  concession  to  Harry  Waite  to 
operate  at  1128  Michigan  Avenue  under  the  alias  of  David  K.  Ross. 
In  November  Frank  Ryan,  a  clairvoyant  of  some  seventeen  years' 
experience,  finding  his  criminal  record  a  handicap  in  New  York  and 
Boston,  came  to  Chicago  and  joined  with  Waite,  both  appearing  as 
Prof.  Ross.  They  paid  Bertsche  $400  a  month  for  the  privilege  of 
swindling  the  people  without  molestation. 

Business  was  so  good  that  Bertsche  now  put  a  fellow  named  Wagg 
into  business  at  1710  Michigan  Avenue.  Frank  Ryan  was  making  so 
much  money  that  in  May,  1912,  he  opened  a  new  place  at  1316  Michi- 
gan Avenue  and  operated  as  Prof.  Robert  L.  Milton.  Another  clair- 
voyant, "Doc"  Russell,  opened  up  at  1128  Michigan  Avenue,  as  Prof. 
W.  H.  Stone  and  contributed  some  $400  a  month  to  the  Bertsche 
income.  In  the  summer  of  1912  James  Ryan,  a  brother  of  Frank's, 
came  to  town  to  share  in  the  good  work,  and  opened  a  handsome  suite 
at  204  North  State  Street,  to  which  his  advertisement  later  brought  the 
Widow  McEldowney.  All  of  them  advertised  extensively  and  all 
of  them  paid  handsomely  to  "Barney"  for  the  monopoly  he  was  able 
to  afford  them. 

Twelve 


In  the  early  part  of  1913,  when  Hoyne  was  just  getting  his  hands 
adjusted  to  the  machinery  of  the  great  prosecuting  office,  Bertsche  was 
enjoying  a  gross  income  of  some  $1,200  a  month  from  his  clairvoyants. 
These  in  turn  were  each  dealing  with  from  sixty  to  seventy  victims  a 
day.  Frank  Ryan,  as  Prof.  Ross,  in  a  year  and  a  half  of  operation 
cleaned  up  about  $80,000.  Jimmy  Ryan,  as  Prof.  Crane,  collected 
$60,000  in  seven  busy  months. 

In  the  advertisements,  palm  and  astrological  readings  were  quoted 
at  only  fifty  cents  or  a  dollar.  But  few  victims  ever  got  out  so  cheaply. 
The  system  was  to  ascertain  how  much  money  the  prospect  had,  and 
then  get  it.  Most  of  the  customers  were  women ;  widows,  middle 
aged  and  plump — hence  "thirty-eights."  They  usually  wanted  to  get 
in  touch  with  deceased  husbands  to  find  out  what  these  would  advise 
as  to  investments. 

When  Mrs.  McEldowney— and  all  the  other  victims — entered  Prof. 
Crane's  parlors,  the  widows  she  found  there  were  not  rf ally  widows. 
They  were  employes  there  for  the  purpose  of  finding  out  her  name, 
address,  what  she  wanted  to  know,  and  everything  else  about  her. 
They  talked  freely  of  their  own  lives  and  the  victim  would  naturally 
be  led  to  talk  of  hers.  If  she  did  not  confide  freely  enough  an  assistant 
would  try  her  with  the  paper  trick.  For  the  paper  she  gave  him,  with 
the  questions  written  on  it,  he  would  substitute  a  blank  fold  of  paper 
and  throw  this  into  the  fire.  Prof.  Crane  and  "Doc"  Russell  also  used 
dictographs.  If  the  prospect  did  not  betray  herself  through  any  of 
these  means  she  would  find  the  professor  so  intranced  in  a  trance  that 
he  could  do  little  if  anything  for  her  that  day.  Upon  her  departure 
she  was  followed  and  her  neighbors  pumped.  Upon  the  second  visit 
all  would  be  as  clear  as  crystal. 

After  the  "thirty-eight"  had  been  caught,  it  was  usual  to  get  her  to 
invest  her  funds  in  copper  mining  stock.  Each  of  the  astrologers  kept 
a  fine  assortment  of  certificates.  Mrs.  McEldowney  was  the  "big 
thirty-eight,"  but  there  were  many  others.  Mrs.  Mary  Rapp,  of  Naper- 
ville,  111.,  invested  $11,000  in  these  fake  certificates,  Frank  Crane  being 
her  swindler.  These  were  perhaps  the  largest  individual  sums  but  it 
was  no  uncommon  thing  to  take  a  thousand  or  two  from  some  woman 
who  depended  on  her  income  for  a  living. 

Early  in  1913  the  clairvoyants  took  fright,  learning  that  Hoyne 
was  after  them,  and  fled  the  city.  In  the  search  that  followed  Willie 
Neff,  alias  Prof.  Salisbury,  was  the  first  arrested.  His  parents  had  a 
rooming  house  on  Michigan  Avenue  and  a  detective  installed  there  as 
a  lodger  was  able  to  find  out  that  Willie  was  returning  to  the  city 
for  a  visit.  The  house  was  surrounded  and  the  clairvoyant  captured. 
By  searching  Neff's  effects  the  trust's  code  book  was  found.  The 
Ryans  were  traced  to  Kansas  City  by  their  baggage.  They  escaped 
there  and  James  Ryan's  baggage  was  followed  to  Lusk,  Wyoming. 
Frank  Crane,  it  was  finally  discovered  through  a  telephone  call,  had 
moved  from  his  hotel  to  a  certain  house.  He  was  followed  but  again 

Thirteen 


escaped.  Jesse  Gillage,  colored  doorkeeper  for  Frank  Ryan,  and  one 
of  the  smartest  of  the  gang,  also  escaped  from  the  house  where  he  had 
been  located  in  Kansas  City.  He  was  followed  to  Omaha,  to  Syracuse, 
to  York,  Pa.,  to  New  York  City,  to  a  farm  in  Vermont,  to  Pittsburgh 
and  finally  to  Cleveland,  where  he  was  arrested. 

NefF,  who  had  promised  to  help  locate  the  gang,  had  been  permitted 
out  in  Chicago  on  bond,  but  disappeared.  He  was  located,  however,  in 
San  Francisco  and  brought  back  to  Chicago.  The  clairvoyants  were 
now  all  under  cover.  By  watching  the  advertisements  in  all  the  news- 
papers of  the  country,-  however,  Hoyne  finally  detected  a  familiar 
wording  in  an  advertisement  appearing  in  Columbus,  This  "store" 
was  found  to  be  in  operation  by  a  minor  member  of  the  gang  and  he 
was  not  molested.  Finally  old  "Doc"  Russell  showed  up  and  was 
promptly  arrested.  This  was  in  October,  1913.  He  made  a  confession. 
Professor  Wagg  was  arrested  in  Montreal  in  August,  1913.  He 
got  out  on  bail,  ran  away  and  was  re-arrested  in  Boston.  After  this 
Harry  Waite,  the  first  member  of  the  syndicate  to  operate  in  Chicago, 
was  arrested  in  St.  Louis.  He  was  decoyed  into  the  Western  Union 
Building  by  a  fake  telegram  and  surrendered  only  after  a  desperate 
fight.  Frank  Crane  was  finally  arrested  in  Detroit  in  November,  1913. 
This  accounts  for  all  the  gang  but  the  man  who  had  given  them 
permission  to  operate — "Barney"  Bertsche.  With  Bertsche  it  was,  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  case  of  too  much  money.  The  thing  that  placed  him 
entirely  within  the  hands  of  Hoyne  was  Mrs.  McEldowney's  bank  draft 
for  $12,500.  Now,  you  will  understand,  even  the  most  proficient  of 
swindlers  dislikes  to  cash  so  large  a  draft.  There  may  be  embarrassing 
complications.  Jimmy  Ryan,  alias  Prof.  Crane,  endorsed  the  draft  to  a 
fictitious  B.  P.  Christy.  "Barney"  Bertsche  impersonated  this  indi- 
vidual and  had  a  friend  introduce  him  as  such  at  the  Union  Trust 
Company.  "I've  had  trouble  with  my  wife,"  he  explained,  "and  don't 
want  her  to  know  of  this  deposit."  He  put  in  some  of  his  own  cash 
with  the  draft.  A  few  days  later  he  drew  out  the  entire  amount.  This 
transaction,  following  the  arrest  of  the  clairvoyants,  sent  "Barney" 
Bertsche  to  Joliet,  together  with  all  the  other  men  mentioned  except 
Frank  Ryan,  who  was  mortally  ill  at  the  time  of  his  arrest. 

As  an  epitaph  to  the  career  of  "Barney"  Bertsche,  the  Chicago 
Journal  said  at  the  time  of  his  conviction : 

•    "State's  Attorney  Hoyne  deserves  a  vote  of  thanks  for  convicting 
'Barney'  Bertsche  and  'Prof.'  Charles  T.  Crane. 

"It  was  no  light  task  to  bring  these  scamps  to  justice.  Among 
the  retail  rascals  of  Chicago,  Bertsche  and  Crane  rank  high.  Crane 
is  head  of  the  so-called  'clairvoyant  trust'  and  'Barney'  Bertsche 
doubtless  has  more  pull  and  influence  than  any  other  citizen  of  the 
underworld  in  Chicago. 

"He  was  believed  to  be  official  fixer  for  practically  all  the  pick- 
pockets and  jack-rollers  operating  in  the  city.  The  'mob'  that  wanted 

Fourteen 


to  do  business  in  Chicago  had  to  'split'  with  Barney,  or  its  career 
was  short  and  full  of  policemen's  clubs. 

"Mr.  Hoyne  deserves  much  credit  for  starting  these  evil  creatures 
on  their  way  to  the  penitentiary." 

\Ye  have  now  accounted  for  all  the  members  of  the  clairvoyant 
trust  except  its  most  important  members — the  grafting  detectives. 


CHAPTER  III 
Wiretapper's    Trust 

In  Which  the  Great  John  Henry  Strosnider  is  put  Behino  the  Bars 

READERS,  meet  Mr.  John  Henry  (Big  Jack)  Strosnider.  now 
of  Joliet,  but  one  time  king  of  the  wiretappers  and  confidence 
men.  You  will  find  him  a  most  interesting  character.  For 
twenty  years,  assisted  by  Joseph  ("Yellow  Kid")  Weil  and  others, 
he  operated  in  Chicago  in  full  fellowship  (partnership  would  be  a  better 
word)  with  those  members  of  the  detective  bureau  who  should  have  been 
his  enemies.  So  surprising  was  his  conviction  that  it  caused  general 
newspaper  comment. 

"The  full  meaning  of  this,"  said  the  Chicago  Tribune,  "is  that 
'Big  Jack'  Strosnider,  surpassing  in  ingenuity  all  the  confidence  men, 
thieves,  swindlers  and  jail  evaders  the  century  has  known,  has  been 
turned  down  by  trie  United  States  Supreme  Court.  State's  Attorney 
Hoyne  thus  becomes  the  first  to  put  behind  the  prison  walls  this 
prince  of  skulduddery  since  President  McKinley  pardoned  him." 

"It  was  the  first  time  in  his  twenty  years  of  operating  as  a  wire- 
tapper,  fake  fight  promoter  and  seller  of  spurious  stock  and  bonds," 
adds  the  Examiner,  "that  Strosnider  ever  slept  in  the  penitentiary. 
State's  Attorney  Hoyne  put  him  there." 

The  pardon  by  President  McKinley  was  granted  in  December, 
1898.  Strosnider  had  served  eighteen  months  of  a  five-year  sentence, 
the  only  punishment  he  ever  suffered.  Strosnider's  wife,  with  a  baby 
in  her  arms,  went  to  the  White  House  and  wept  on  the  president's 
knee.  The  pardon  resulted. 

At  the  time  of  Strosnider's  trial  indictments  were  returned  against 
seven  other  leaders  of  the  swindlers'  trust,  these  including  Joseph 
Weil,  alias  the  "Yellow  Kid,"  Patrick  Kane,  John  D.  Snarley,  Clarence 
Forbes,  George  Wakefield,  Edward  Burns  and  Thomas  O'Byrne. 
The  gang  was  broken  up. 

Perhaps  the  best  remembered  exploit  of  Strosnider  was  the  swin- 
dling of  Dr.  William  T.  Kirby  out  of  $20,000.  This  loss  caused  the 
failure  of  the  Kirby  private  bank.  This  transaction  brings  us  back 
to  old  friends,  for  Strosnider  could  not  have  operated  so  successfully 
had  he  not  been  a  partner  of  "Barney"  Bertsche.  Frank  Ryan  also 
found  time  from  the  clairvoyant  game,  to  assist  in  the  Kirby  swindle. 

Fifteen 


Indeed  the  affair  was  pulled  off  in  the  quarters  at  1710  Michigan 
Avenue,  occupied  by  Prof.  Salisbury,  one  of  the  clairvoyant  trust. 
The  Kirby  swindle  happened  in  the  fall  of  1912  and  is  typical  of 
Strosnider's  work. 

One  day  in  July  a  stranger  entered  Kirby's  bank  and  began  an 
acquaintance  with  the  old  banker  by  asking  him  concerning  a  building 
across  the  street.  Later  this  individual — known  to  Kirby  as  Charles 
Kissell — met  Kirby  at  various  public  places  and  the  acquaintance 
grew.  On  October  28,  "Kissell"  came  into  the  bank  and  said  a 
brother-in-law  of  his  had  come  to  town  and  that  he,  "Kissell,"  wanted 
Kirby  to\  talk  over  a  business  matter  with  the  relative.  The  brother- 
in-law,  of  course,  was  Strosnider.  He  was  using  the  name  of  Shea. 

Kirby  and  "Kissell"  met  Strosnider,  who  told  Kirby  that  he  was 
a  confidential  man  in  the  employ  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company ;  that  he  had  been  working  in  Pitttsburgh,  but  had  been 
transferred  to  Chicago  for  ten  days ;  that  the  telegraph  company  had 
devised  a  cipher  code  for  transmitting  and  receiving  results  of  horse 
races  from  the  various  race-tracks  of  the  country,  and  that  his  duty 
while  in  Chicago  would  be  to  receive  such  messages,  decipher  them 
and.  transmit  them  to  the  various  pool  rooms  in  the  city  of  Chicago; 
that  it  was  within  his  power  to  withhold  a  message  for  a  reasonable 
length  of  time  after  receiving  it,  and  that  if  Kirby  would  station  him- 
self at  some  place  convenient  to  a  pool  room  he  would  telephone  him 
the  results  of  horse  races  before  sending  them  to  that  pool  room,  and 
Kirby  would  thereby  be  enabled  to  bet  on  the  horse  that  had  won 
the  race. 

Strosnider  gave  Kirby  a  list  of  six  alleged  pool  rooms  and  then 
went  back  to  work.  Kirby  and  "Kissell"  tried  the  first  pool  room,  but 
could  not  gain  admittance.  At  the  second  a  man  on  the  stairs  said 
there  was  nothing  doing,  but  directed  them  to  1710  Michigan  Avenue 
and  wrote  them  a  pass.  The  pair  entered  a  drug  store  next  the  sup- 
posed pool  room  and  got  into  touch  with  Strosnider  through  Kirby's 
bank.  Strosnider  gave  Kirby  the  name  of  the  winner,  and  the  two 
hurried  into  1710  Michigan  Avenue,  where  they  were  admitted  by 
the  same  man  who  had  directed  them  to  the  place.  "Kissell"  had 
suggested  that  as  it  was  the  first  day  it  might  be  wise  only  to  place 
a  small  bet.  So  they  put  in  only  $10.  "O'Brien,"  the  man  in  charge, 
explained  to  them  that  he  would  take  their  little  bet  for  once,  but 
that  this  was  a  place  for  big  play,  where  gentlemen  of  means  bet  all 
the  way  from  $10,000  to  $50,000  on  a  race.  Kirby  apologized  and  said 
he  and  his  friend  would  try  to  come  up  to  class  on  the  following  day. 

While  Kirby  was  placing  his  $10  bet  a  person  addressed  as  Judge 
Mahoney  was  informed  that  he  now  owed  the  house  $4,000.  The 
judge  said  he  would  send  a  check  in  the  morning,  and  ordered  his  car. 
Kirby  heard  a  telegraph  instrument  in  another  room  click,  and  then 
a  voice  announced  that  the  race  was  closed.  A  moment  later  the 

Sixteen 


result  was  made  known  and  Kirby  and  his  friend  received  $20  for 
their  $10. 

Later  the  pair  met  Strosnider  at  the  Blackstone,  and  Kirby,  at 
their  solicitation,  agreed  to  bring  $20,000  the  following  day.  Stro- 
snider made  a  point  of  its  being  in  $1,000  bills  or  smaller  denomina- 
tions. According  to  the  plan,  Kirby  and  "Kissell"  stationed  them- 
selves in  a  cigar  store  and  Kirby  was  informed  by  Strosnider  over  the 
phone  that  Lucky  George  had  won  the  race.  They  went  into  the  pool 
room,  "O'Brien"  took  the  money,  the  hidden  telegraph  instrument 
clicked,  the  voice  recounted  the  race  in  detail  and  finally  announced 
the  winner.  Lucky  George  had  come  in  only  second. 

At  St.  Hubert's  Inn  the  pair  met  Strosnider.  The  swindler  insisted 
he  had  told  Kirby  to  bet  on  Lucky  George,  not  as  winner,  but  for 
place.  "Anyway,"  he  said,  "don't  worry.  A  friend  in  Milwaukee  is 
going  to  send  me  $100,000  tomorrow  and  I'll  give  you  back  the  $20,000 
and  we'll  operate  with  the  rest." 

That  was  the  last  Kirby  saw  of  Strosnider  until  after  the  arrest 

of  the  wire  tapper. 

*       *       *       *       *     •  * 

Strosnider  knew  how  to  run  a  "pay-off  joint"  to  perfection. 
Steerers  for  this  swindle  hang  around  the  leading  hotels  and  get 
acquainted  with  cattlemen  and  others  who  possess  a  combinaion  of 
money  and  innocence.  The  steerer,  having  got  acquainted  with  the 
Iowa  farmer,  leads  him  out  to  the  vicinity  of  the  pay-off  joint.  Sud- 
denly the  stranger  says  to  the  farmer :  "You  see  that  man  across  the 
street?  I  think  that  is  Col.  Gates,  the  man  who  won  $100,000  on  a 
horse  race  last  week  in  St.  Louis."  He  walks  over  to  the  man  and 
says,  "Aren't  you  Col.  Gates?"  The  man  modestly  admits  he  is  the 
colonel  and  that  he  is  the  individual  who  made  the  big  killing  at  St. 
Louis.  The  stranger  then  says,  "Can't  you  let  me  and  my  friend 
in  on  something  good?"  Whereupon  the  colonel  says:  "Yes,  there 
is  a  place  over  here  where  there  is  a  little  betting  going  on.  We 
might  go  over." 

At  the  joint  Col.  Gates  wins  two  or  three  small  wagers.  Then  he 
stakes  $20,000  and  promises  to  give  the  farmer  one-third  of  the  win- 
nings. He  puts  up  his  check  and  the  horse  wins.  "Go  and  collect 
our  money,"  he  says  to  the  farmer.  But  the  cashier  declines  to  pay 
because  the  check  might  not  have  been  good.  There  is  a  consultation 
and  each  agrees  to  bring  what  money  he  can  get,  so  that  the  winnings 
can  be  paid  out.  The  farmer  packs  back  to  Iowa  and  gets  $5,000  or 
$10,000.  Upon  the  return  they  all  three  go  to  the  joint  and  turn  in  the 
money.  Then  the  steerer  and  the  colonel  get  into  a  fight  over  a 
division  of  profits,  the  colonel  is  knocked  down  and  bites  a  capsule 
of  red  stain  which  he  has  in  his  mouth.  The  "blood"  oozes  between 
his  lips  and  someone  says,  "My  God,  boys,  he's  dead !"  The  steerer 
grabs  the  farmer  by  the  arm.  "Come  on  out,"  he  whispers;  "the 

Seventeen 


police  will  be  here  in  a  minute  and  we  shall  be  arrested  for  murder. 
We  can  come  back  for  the  money  tomorrow."  The  farmer  is  hustled 
out  of  the  pay-off  joint,  out  of  the  city  and  the  state,  and  made  to 
believe  that  he  must  lay  low  or  the  police,  who  are  looking  for  the 
murderer,  will 'get  him.  When  he  realizes  he  has  been  swindled  he 
often  refuses  to  prosecute. 

This  game  was  worked  hundreds  of  times  in  Chicago  in  the  old 
days,  but  has  ceased  to  make  history  since  Hoyne  sent  the  trust  to  the 
penitentiary. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Pickpocket  Trust 

In  Which  Eddie,  the  Immune,  Pays  a  Belated  Visit  to  Joliet 

THIS  trust  throve  under  police  protection  for  years,  until  the  busi- 
ness came  to  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  necessary  evils  of 
life  in  a  large  city.  Eddie  Jackson  was  the  king  of  the  pick- 
pockets. He  operated  for  many  years,  principally  in  Chicago,  and  it 
was  currently  said  that  he  and  his  gang  had  filched  from  the  pockets 
of  our  people  more  than  a  million  dollars. 

Though  often  caught  by  his  victims  and  turned  over  to  the  detectives, 
he  always  escaped  with  a  fine  or  a  jail  sentence,  and  at  the  time  of 
Hoyne's  election  as  state's  attorney  was  known  to  the  country  as  "Eddie 
the  Immune."  Hoyne  broke  his  immunity  early 'in  his  administration 
by  three  felony  convictions  in  succession,  under  which  "Eddie  the 
Immune"  was  sent  to  Joliet,  where  he  is  now  living. 

The  situation  as  it  existed  is  well  told  in  an  interview  given  by 
"Eddie  the  Immune"  to  a  Chicago  Examiner  reporter,  printed  on  the 
25th  of  October,  1914: 

"I  paid  protection  myself  for  fourteen  years.  How  much  it  aggre- 
gated I  don't  know,  but  in  percentages  it  took  half  of  all  I  ever  got  to 
keep  me  squared  with  the  police,  to  hire  lawyers  to  defend  me  when  I 
had  to  stand  for  an  arrest  to  make  things  look  good,  and  to  stay  friendly 
with  the  petty  politicians  who  boss  the  police  department  from  the  green- 
est 'harness  bull'  up. 

"In  the  old  days,  when  the  'picking  was  good/  I  used  to  take 
care  of  the  strange  pickpockets  when  they  came  into  town.  The  cop- 
pers would  arrest  them  and  rearrest  them  until  they  saw  the  great  light 
and  came  into  the  ring.  Then  I  would  steer  them  into  'right'. territory, 
where  the  presiding  police  could  look  on  without  becoming  too  interested. 

"And  from  these  newcomers  and  the  old-timers,  too,  I  used  to  col- 
lect the  'protection'  money.  In  the  *  *  *  days  I  used  to  take  a 
weekly  roll  to  the  old  Bertsche  saloon.  Sometimes  it  ran  so  high  as 
$5.000  a  week.  After  Bertsche  was  closed  up  there  were  four  other 
places  where  the  money  went.  *  *  * 

Eighteen 


"Barney"  (Christian  P.)  Bertsche,  who  guaranteed  immunity  from  arrest  to  clair- 
voyants, wiretappers,  pickpockets,  gunmen  and  other  criminals,  at  so  much  ppr 
month.  As  their  representative  he  paid  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  graft  syndi- 
cate in  the  detective  bureau. 


Nineteen 


"There  has  always  been  a  system  of  police  graft  and  criminal  pro- 
tection in  Chicago.  As  long  as  politicians  are  allowed  to  force  the 
policemen  who  would  be  honest  to  go  to  'the  woods'  for  interfering 
with  criminals  who  stand  in  favor  with  the  politicians  that  system  will 
continue.  When  some  system  is  devised  to  protect  the  policeman 
who  is  essentially  honest,  graft  will  cease." 

The  offenses  that  sent  Eddie  over  the  road  were  committed  in  April, 
1913.  On  the  15th,  with  the  aid  of  Harry  Britton,  he  picked  the  pocket 
of  John  A.  Putz  on  an  Ogden  Avenue  car,  and  got  $16.  On  the  23rd, 
he,  with  Frank  O'Neill  and  J.  Hannon,  took  $100  from  the  pocket  of 
John  McArty  on  a  Madison  Street  car.  Eddie  was  caught  in  the  act 
and  his  protection  failed  him  at  last. 

So  well  were  the  pickpockets  organized  that  those  belonging  to  the 
trust  carried  what  might  be  described  as  union  cards  to  distinguish 
them  from  outside  workers  who  were  subject  to  arrest.  These  cards 
had  a  double  perforation  that  was  meaningless  to  the  unitiated  but 
very  important  to  the  pickpockets  themselves  and  to  the  crooked 
detectives. 

The  thieves  also  maintained  a  clearing  house  for  stolen  pocketbooks. 
The  thief  had  to  turn  his  plunder  over  to  the  heads  of  the  trust,  who 
held  the  purse  for  a  certain  number  of  days  to  see  whether  it  had 
belonged  to  anyone  whose  "rap"  had  to  be  considered.  If  the  bereaved 
individual  proved  to  be  one  who  could  make  trouble,  the  pocketbook 
and  its  contents  were  returned.  Otherwise,  the  ordinary  citizen  who 
complained  got  no  redress. 

The  existence  of  this  clearing  house  was  proved  when,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1914,  some  misguieded  thief  filched  the  purse  of  Judge  Rufus 
Robinson.  The  judge  had  come  up  from  down-state  to  do  relief  work 
in  the  municipal  court.  The  wallet  had  contained  $300  in  cash  and 
securities.  The  irate  judge  announced  to  a  cetrain  police  officer  in  his 
court  room  that  the  property  would  have  to  be  returned  at  once  or 
there  would  be  excitement  enough  for  all.  ^Jext  day  the  purse  came 
back  by  mail. 

The  pickpocket  who  did  any  particular  job  only  received  about 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  profits.  The  rest  was  retained  by  his  superiors 
to  pay  protection  and  attorney's  fees  and  other  expenses. 

It  is  an  amusing  bit  of  political  information  to  know  that,  were 
Roosevelt,  Bryan  and  Taft  to  be  candidates  again,  the  Colonel  would 
get  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  pickpockets.  During  the  presidential 
tour  the  thieves  followed  the  candidates  about  the  country,  falling 
into  line  with  those  who  meant  to  shake  the  big  men  by  the  hand. 
So  often  were  they  in  line  that  Taft  and  Bryan  got  to  know  them 
and  would  point  them  out  to  the  local  officers  as  pickpockets.  Roose- 
velt, for  some  reason  or  other,  did  not  do  this — at  least  the  thieves 
so  say. 

In  the  city   districts  commanded  by  crooked  captains   the  pick- 

Twenty 


pockets'  hangout  was  usually  a  saloon  owned  or  operated  by  a  friend 
or  relative  of  the  police  official.  A  share  of  the  loot  was  turned  in  by 
the  thief  to  the  saloonkeeper.  The  pickpocket  also  regarded  it  as 
policy  to  spend  much  of  his  profits  over  the  official  bar.  Sometimes 
a  detective  went  along  with  the  crook  so  that  if  there  was  an  outcry 
he  might  be  arrested  by  a  friend,  and  not  by  a  strange  officer.  After 
the  friendly  copper  had  taken  his  prisoner  a  block  or  two  away,  they 
would  have  a  drink  and  part  to  resume  operations.  When  there  had  been 
too  much  hubbub  for  this  sort  of  thing,  the  prisoner  was  held,  and 
the  complaining  witness  bought  off  or  tired  out  by  unending  delays. 
The  grafting  officer  also  got  his  percentage  from  the  professional  bonds- 
man who  bails  out  the  thief. 

For  the  information  of  the  reader  it  may  be  repeated  here  that 
the  authorities  regard  with  suspicion  the  individual  at  summer 
amusement  parks  who  offers  to  weigh  you  free  if  he  fails  to  guess 
your  heft.  This  man,  in  patting  your  person  over  to  find  out 
how  much  fat  you  have  concealed  in  your  clothes,  also  finds  out — 
if  he  so  chooses — where  your  pocketbook  is.  If  he  is  one  of  a  gang 
of  crooks  he  indicates  where  the  plunder  lies  by  placing  his  hand 
on  one  of  his  own  pockets.  You  are  followed  until  the  opportunity 
comes. 


CHAPTER  V 
Burglary  Trust 

Explaining    How  Business  Methods  May  Be  Applied  to   House  Breaking — 
The  Trust  Sent  to  Prison 

THE  burglary  trust  was  at  its  prime.     Whole  stocks  of  goods 
were  being  removed  from  Chicago  stores.     Along  with  the  mer- 
chandise often  would  go  the  fireproof  safe.     Later,  perhaps,  it 
would  be  found,  blown  open,  in  some  building  rented  for  the  purpose 
by  the  outlaws.    It  seemed  impossible  to  identify  the  burglars.    Very 
occasionally  a  man  would  be  brought  in  whom  everyone  believed 
to  be  one  of  the  trust.     But  for  some  reason  the  state's  witnesses 
always  fell  down  in  some  detail  or  other  and  spoiled  the  case.     Mat- 
ters had  been  going  on  thus  for  five  or  six  years,  and  getting  worse. 
There  seemed  no  limit  to  the  boldness  of  the  robbers. 

These  organized  burglars  did  not  bother  with  residential  work. 
They  were  business  men  and  could  not  afford  to  fritter  away  their 
time  in  mere  adventure.  All  their  energy  was  given  to  the  method- 
ical breaking  and  entering  of  dry-goods  stores  and  other  commercial 
establishments.  Now  and  then  they  raided  a  freight  car  in  the 
yards,  when  it  was  known  to  contain  something  worth  while.  Their 
Joot  often  ran  as  much  as  $10,000  a  night.  Doing  two  or  three  jobs 

Tivcnty-one 


a  week,  some  of  these  men  had  accumulated  unto  themselves  very 
considerable  fortunes. 

"There  are  just  two  things  that  we  have  to  find  out,"  said  State's 
Attorney  Hoyne.  "One  is,  how  do  the  burglars  get  their  plunder 
to  the  receivers  of  stolen  goods?  The  other  is,  why  do  the  police 
always  fail  to  make  a  case  when  they  have  their  man  in  court? 
When  we  know  those  two  things  we  know  all." 

The  first  problem,  proved  most  difficult  of  solution.  But  the 
state's  attorney's  operatives  finally  uncovered  the  ingenious  scheme. 
The  burglars  would  put  their  stolen  dry  goods  into  trunks  or  boxes 
of  the  kind  that  would  pass  for  personal  baggage.  They  would  then 
cart  them  to  a  railway  station  and  get  a  receipt  for  them.  This 
receipt  would  be  turned  over  to  the  receivers  of  stolen  goods.  The 
receivers  would  then  buy  a  railway  ticket  on  some  other  road  and 
check  the  goods  as  baggage.  The  transfer  wagon  would  get  the 
trunks  or  boxes  and  they  would  come  into  possession  of  the  receiver 
of  stolen  goods  or  his  agents  without  his  ever  having  been  near 
them.  A  more  effective  means  of  protecting  the  dealers  could  hardly 
have  been  devised. 

The  second  problem  at  first  seemed  even  more  mystifying.  But 
at  last  it  was  demonstrated  that  the  trust  burglars  included  in  their 
organization  several  important  officials  of  the  police  department. 
When  a  gangster  was  arrested,  either  by  design  to  divert  suspicion, 
or  by  an  honest  policeman,  his  police  protector  would  appear  as  the 
officer  in  charge  of  the  case  for  the  people,  and  he  would  make  it  his 
business  to  have  the  gangster  discharged  at  the  preliminary  hearing^ 
if  possible,  or  before  the  grand  jury,  if  possible,  or  with  a  misde- 
meanor conviction  before  the  court,  if  nothing  better  could  be 
obtained. 

If  none  of  these  things  could  be  accomplished,  and  the  criminal 
had  to  face  a  jury  on  a  felony  charge,  then  this  detective  in  charge 
would  manage  to  say  something,  as  a  witness  for  the  people,  suf- 
ficiently in  favor  of  the  accused  to  create  a  reasonable  doubt,  and 
bring  about  his  acquittal.  Hoyne  discovered  this  trick  of  the  officer 
in  charge,  and  secured  his  first  conviction  against  the  burglary  trust 
without  the  aid  of  the  officer's  testimony.  When  this  convicted 
gangster  had  spent  five  months  in  Joliet,  and  had  realized  that  "pro- 
tection" was  not  being  made  good  to  him,  he  requested  an  interview 
with  Hoyne  and  told  the  shocking  story. 

Captain  James  O'Dea  Storen  and  Sergeant  Michael  Weisbaum 
proved  to  be  the  foremost  members  of  the  burglary  trust.  The 
burglaries  were  committed  by  Nathan  Steinberg,  Morris  Mendelsohn, 
'Isidore  Wexler,  Sam  Smith,  Jack  Schnieder,  Harry  Green,  and  Morris 
Dressier.  The  principal  receivers  were  Barney  Melnich,  Israel  Ticot- 
sky  and  Max  (Cockeye)  Goldstein. 

The  workings  of  this  crime  syndicate  became  public  at  the  trial. 


An  amusing  feature  was  the  attempt  made  by  Captain  Storen  and 
Sergeant  Weisbaum  to  divert  suspicion  from  themselves.  The  bur- 
glars took  $4,000 'worth  of  woolens  from  Schartz  Brothers  and  left 
them  in  a  bakery  wagon  so  that  the  two  police  officials  could  pounce 
upon  the  plunder,  get  a  nice  newspaper  mention  and  claim  the  $500 
reward.  The  money  was  later  divided  with  the  burglars. 

At  another  time,  when  Wexler  and  Steinberg  had  ransacked  a 
store,  Wexler  accidentally  left  his  coat  behind.  In  one  of  its  pockets 
was  his  parole  card.  Promptly,  Storen  and  Weisbaum  came  into 
court  to  the  rescue.  The  sergeant  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  Every- 
one that  Wexler  had  lost  his  parole  card  some  months  before,  and  the 
captain  testified  that  the  coat  in  which  it  was  found  was  not  Wexler's 
and  did  not  fit  him.  This  assistance  cost  the  two  burglars  $200  in 
fees  to  their  police  protectors. 

Of  the  receivers  of  stolen  goods,  Melnich  and  Goldsmith  had  been 
in  business  for  twenty  years  and  had  never  been  convicted.  As  a 
result  of  Hoyne's  crusade,  Captain  Storen  and  Sergeant  Weisbaum, 
Isadore  Wexler,  Nathan  Steinberg,  Morris  Mendelson,  Harry  Green, 
Sam  Smith  and  Barney  Melnich  were  convicted.  Isador  Ticotsky 
got  off  with  a  year'in  the  bridewell.  The  trust  will  not  resume  opera- 
tions for  several  years  if  Hoyne  is  re-elected. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Detective  Bureau  Criminals 

In  Which,  at  Last,  We  Reach  the  Men  Higher  Up 

LINK  by  link  Hoyne's  chain  of  investigation  and  prosecution  led 
him  ifearer  and  nearer  to  the  real  cause  of  organized  and  pro- 
tected crime.  To  have  been  content  with  the  conviction  of 
the  heads  of  the  various  criminal  trusts,  without  the  annihilation  ot 
the  power  on  which  they  depended  for  their  existence  and  success, 
would  have  resulted  only  in  a  change  in  the  leadership  of  the  syndi- 
cates— the  pickpocket  trust,  the  arson  trust,  the  burglary  trust,  the 
wiretapper-confidence  game  trust,  and  the  clairvoyant  trust.  All  the 
criminal  combinations  required  the  connivance  of  the  dishonest  poli- 
tician and  police  official  for  their  success.  To  rid  Chicago  of  this 
contemptible  collusion  would  break  down  the  system  of  organized 
crime.  This  Hoyne  realized,  and  followed  the  trail  into  the  city's 
detective  bureau,  in  search  of  no  individual,  but  determined  to  prose- 
cute without  fear  or  favor  any  police  official  whom  he  found  to  be 
a  traitor  to  his  public  trust. 

In  November,  1913,  with  the  heads  of  the  clairvoyant  trust,  Hoyne 
convicted  "Barney"  Bertsche,  the  go-between.  It  was  through 
Bertsche  that  all  these  combinations  were  permitted  to  operate,  not 

Twenty-three 


only  unmolested,  but  actually  protected.  "If  anybody  could  startle 
Chicago,  it  was  this  strange  toad  from  the  swamps  of  crime,  with 
his  prison  record,  his  political  pull,  his  desperate  temper,  and  his  fol- 
lowing,'' said  a  leading  Chicago  paper  in  editorial  comment. 

On  November  17,  1914,  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  upheld  the 
conviction  of  Bertsche,  who  was  out  on  bond.  The  criminal  detect- 
ives knew  what  this  meant — "Barney"  believed  he  had  been  double- 
crossed  and  would  try  to  get  even.  Representatives  of  the  "law" 
were  sent  to  take  him  to  Joliet,  but  on  the  way — on  Randolph  Street, 
in  midafternoon — tried  to  murder  him.  In  the  gun  battle  that  fol- 
lowed, Bertsche,  unfortunately  for  the  grafters  in  the  detective 
bureau,  was  only  wounded  and  recovered  to  tell  his  story.  It  was 
the  New  York  Rosenthal-Becker  case  all  over  again,  but  with  a 
different  ending. 

On  December  2,  1914,  the  state's  attorney  made  his  famous  dec- 
laration that  the  detective  bureau  was  a  den  of  thieves.  Mayor 
Thompson  was  quoted  in  the  Chicago  Tribune  later  as  saying: 

"The  police  department  stinks.  The  police  department  is  honey- 
combed with  grafters,  who  are  collecting  money  all  over  the  city.  I 
am  told  there  are  men  in  the  detective  bureau  who  know  every  pick- 
pocket, safeblower  and  that  class  of  criminals  in  the  city." 

Within  three  days  after  Hoyne's  statement  Captain  John  J.  Hal- 
pin,  head  of  the  bureau :  Lieutenant  John  H.  Tobin  and  Sergeant 
William  Egan  were  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  on  various  charges  of 
conspiracy  and  accepting  bribes.  Later,  Captain  James  O'Dea  Storen, 
Walter  O'Brien,  Michael  Weisbaum  and  other  members  of  the  police 
force  also  were  indicted.  What  Hoyne  accomplished  is  better  told 
by  the  following  summary: 

Guilty — Captain  John  J.  Halpin,  Captain  James  O'Dea  Storen, 
Sergeant  William  Egan,  Sergeant  Walter  O'Brien,  Sergeant  Michael 
Weisbaum. 

Awaiting  trial — Lieutenant  John  H.  Tobin. 

Suspended  from  police  department — Sergeant  John  J.  O'Keefe, 
Sergeant  James  Monaghan. 

Resigned  after  filing  of  charges — Sergeant  John  J.  Dempsey,  Ser- 
geant William  Carmody. 

Not  guilty — Frederick  Roth  (who  is  now  awaiting  trial  on  a 
charge  of  subornation  of  perjury  in  the  case  in  which  he  was 
acquitted). 

There  is  not  an  honest  policeman  or  a  public-spirited  citizen  in 
Chicago  who  will  not  rejoice  that  the  crooked  element  of  the  police 
department  is  being  driven  from  the  force.  It  is  up  to  the  voters  to 
see  that  the  crime  syndicates  do  not  succeed  in  their  plan  of  getting 
back  through  the  coming  election. 

We  will  now  take  another  glance  into  the  workings  of  the  clair- 
voyant trust  to  see  how  valuable  police  friendship  and  assistance 

Twenty-four 


1.  Captain  John  J.  Halpin,  head  of  the  Detective  Bureau,  sentenced  to 
Joliet  for  being  the  protector — for  a  monthly1  fee — of  "Barney"  Bertsche  and 
other  criminals.  2.  Captain  James  O'Dea  Storen,  convicted  as  being  in  league 
with  the  million  dollar  burglary  trust.  3.  Sergeant  Michael  Weisbaum, 
convicted  as  protector  of  million  dollar  burglar  trust.  Captain  Storen's 
Handy  Andy.  4.  Sergeant  Walter  O'Brien,  convicted  as  protector  of  clair- 
vovarit  trust. 


Twenty-five 


may  be  to  a  band  of  swindlers.  In  the  beginning,  before  "Barney" 
Bertsche  could  open  the  first  of  these  astrological  parlors,  he  had 
to  reach  an  agreement  with  Captain  Halpin.  He  arranged  to  pay 
the  captain  $100  a  month  for  protection  for  this  one  office.  He  also 
agreed  to  give  the  captain  ten  per  cent  of  the  money  taken  in  by  a 
set  of  wire-tappers  also  working  under  his  guidance.  How  profit- 
able this  later  proviso  proved  to  the  detective  chief  may  be  shown 
by  instancing  a  single  transaction — the  swindling  of  Dr.  William  E. 
Kirby,  which  paid  Halpin  $2,000  cash. 

In  order  that  smooth  sailing  should  be  assured  for  his  clairvoyant 
proteges,  "Barney"  next  selected  the  detectives  who  would  work  on 
clairvoyant  cases.  Halpin  allowed  him  to  pick  Walter  O'Brien  and 
Joseph  Carmody.  Bertsche  put  O'Brien  on  the  payroll  for  $100  a 
month.  The  detective  regularly  consulted  with  "Barney"  at  his 
saloon  and  took  orders.  At  the  time  that  "Jimmy"  Ryan  opened  his 
parlors  as  Prof.  Charles  T.  Crane,  Bertsche  raised  the  pay  of  Halpin 
and  O'Brien  to  $200  a  month  each.  By  the  time  that  Bertsche's 
income  from  the  parlors  had  reached  $1,200  a  month,  he  was  paying 
out  $500  of  this  to  the  police. 

Among  the  services  rendered  by  the  detectives  for  this  remunera- 
tion was  the  saving  of  old  "Doc"  Russell  from  the  California  authori- 
ties. The  doctor  was  working  the  town  of  Ottawa  and  has  been 
arrested  by  Deputy  Sheriff  Benjamin  F.  Krause,  who  recognized  in 
him  the  i.ian  for  whom  the  Coast  police  were  offering  a  $100  reward. 
Bertsche  1:2.1  one  of  his  henchmen,  Ed  Giroux,  swear  out  a  false 
complaint  against  old  "Doc"  Russell,  charging  him  with  a  $600 
swindle  in  Chicago.  Detectives  O'Brien  and  Carmondy  were  then 
sent  down  to  rescue  the  well-known  clairvoyant.  The  Ottawa  sheriff 
preferred  California  to  Chicago  until  he  learned  that  Chicago  also 
offered  $100  reward.  Then  he  turned  Russell  over  to  Halpin's 
representatives. 

Upon  the  prisoner's  arrival  in  Chicago  he  was  not  even  taken  into 
court  and  the  complaining  witness,  Giroux,  having  disappeared,  he 
was  discharged.  California  then  begged  Captain  Halpin  to  turn 
Russell  over,  but  the  petition  was  ignored  and  the  old  doctor  was  set 
up  as  a  clairvoyant,  to  help  swell  the  detective  captains'  revenues. 

So  many  complaints  were  filed  against  Prof.  Charles  T.  Crane  in 
the. autumn  of  1912  that  the  detective  bureau  had  to  make  a  show- 
ing by  a  fake  arrest.  "Jimmy"  Ryan,  alias  the  professor,  insisted  that 
his  name  must  not  be  used,  as  it  would  hurt  business.  The  com- 
plaint, as  it  came  from  the  clerical  department  of  the  bureau,  was 
against  Charles  T.  Crane,  but  O'Brien  arranged  so  that  the  warrant, 
bond  and  title  of  the  case  read  A.  C.  Crane,  thus  avoiding  any  scan- 
dal among  the  clairvoyant's  "thirty-eights."  Nobody,  of  course,  was 
arrested,  but  O'Brien  wrote  a  letter  to  the  chief  of  police,  for  the 
official  files,  saying  that  Prof.  Charles  T.  Crane  had  been  arrested. 

Twenty-sif 


For  two  years  the  clairvoyants  ran  their  confidence  game  wide 
open,  despite  a  personal  request  from  Mayor  Harrison  to  Captain 
Halpin  that  a  special  investigation  be  made  of  them.  The  detectives 
even  went  further  with  their  protection  of  the  trust,  and  drove  unau- 
thorized competitors  out  of  business.  There  was  a  city  ordinance 
against  fortune  telling,  and  O'Brien,  at  the  suggestion  of  Prof.  Crane, 
used  it  to  close  out  Prof.  Kronberg,  Prof.  Reynolds  and  other  inter- 
fering persons.  Later  on,  it  is  said,  O'Brien  even  drove  old  "Doc" 
Russell  out  of  town  for  Prof.  Crane's  benef.t.  After  Russell's  place 
was  closed  his  furniture  was  carted  up  to  O'Brien's  home.  O'Brien 
was  a  business  man. 

All  the  time  that  Frank  Ryan  (Prof.  Ross)  was  operating,  Halpin 
and  his  crowd  knew  the  clairvoyant  was  wanted  in  Boston.  His  pic- 
ture and  description  appeared  in  "The  Detective,"  a  police  paper, 
and  Ryan  even  had  Captain  Halpin  write  to  Boston  at  one  time  and 
find  out  whether  he  was  being  sought.  The  criminals  in  the  bureau 
also  protected  the  clairvoyants  against  the  complaints  of  defrauded 
citizens. 

Halpin,  O'Brien  and  Bertsche  made  a  desperate  fight  to  keep 
Hoyne  from  getting  Prof.  Crane  back  to  Chicago  for  trial,  after  his 
arrest  in  Wyoming.  The  wetsern  authorities  naturally  notified  the 
detective  bureau  and  it  was  at  once  arranged  that  Detective  O'Brien 
should  hurry  out  west  and  rescue  his  friend.  But  Hoyne  held  O'Brien 
in  Chicago  and  sent  Assistant  State's  Attorney  George  C.  Bliss  and 
Detective  William  Murnane.  Bertsche  then  faked  a  complaint  in 
Kansas  City  and  sent  a  crooked  officer  up  to  get  the  clairvoyant  for 
the  alleged  Missouri  crime.  The  Wyoming  authorities  were  not 
fooled,  however.  Habeas  corpus  proceedings  were  next  instituted 
and  Ed  Giroux,  who  had  served  in  the  rescue  of  old  "Doc"  Russell, 
appeared  as  a  witness.  He  said  Prof.  Cr'ane  had  swindled  him  out 
of  $1,000  in  Chicago,  but  that  "Jimmy"  Ryan,  the  prisoner,  was  not 
Crane.  Again  the  trick  failed,  for  Mrs.  McEldowney  was  sent  lor 
and  identified  the  swindler.  Habeas  corpus  proceedings  were  next 
started  in  the  supreme  court  of  Wyoming,  but  this  move  also  was 
beaten.  "Barney"  Bertsche  laid  a  last  trap  in  Omaha,  having  had 
fake  extradition  papers  sworn  out  hi  Nebraska.  A  gang  was  em- 
ployed to  overpower  the  honest  detective  and  take  Prof.  Crane  from 
him  "in  the  name  of  the  law."  But  this  trick  failed  also.  Bertsche, 
Ryan  (Crane),  Halpin,  O'Brien  and  others  were  indicted  and  con- 
victed and  the  criminal  organization  in  the  detective  bureau  broken  up. 

A  little  detail  will  show  how  cleverly  and  carefully  the  graft 
machine  was  constructed  and  operated.  Bertsche  had  to  make  regu- 
lar monthly  payments  to  a  number  of  detectives.  To  have  gone 
behind  a  door  and  paid  them  over  the  money  might  have  caused  com- 
ment. Everything  must  be  in  the  open.  So  it  was  arranged  that 
the  detective  would  lounge  into  "Barney's"  bar  some  evening 

Twenty-seven 


when  it  was  crowded  and,  after  a  casual  remark  or  two,  ask  for  a 
match.  Bertsche  would  hand  over  a  box  of  them,  the  detective  would 
scratch  one  on  the  box  and  then  put  the  box  in  his  pocket.  Within, 
the  container  was  a  roll  of  bills. 


CHAPTER  VII 
Horse  Thief  Trust 

In  Which   the  Wild  Western  Gangsters  Go  to  Joliet 

{  f  ~]\    /T  R.  HOYNE,"  said  Jabez  C.  Howe  of  Homewood,  Illinois, 

|\/|  one  day  shortly  after  the  state's  attorney  assumed  office; 
"if  you  were  to  make  a  guess,  what  particular  spot  in  the 
United  States  would  you  pick  out  as  the  happy  home  of  the  horse 
thief?" 

Mr.  Hoyne  laughed.  "Why,"  said  he,  "I  should  suggest  the  Big 
Bend  country  down  along  the  Rio  Grande  or  the  Hole-in-the-Wall 
out  Northwest  as  being  the  place  of  business  of  the  sort  of  desperado 
that  steals  horses." 

"Wrong,"  said  Howe  of  Homewood.  "Mr.  Hoyne,  the  greatest 
nest  of  horse  thieves  the  nation  has  ever  seen  is  operating  right  here 
today  in  Cook  County!" 

"Nonsense.  Why,  there  haven't  been  a  half  dozen  convictions  in 
twice  as  many  years." 

"That's  just  it,  Mr.  Hoyne.  None  of  your  predecessors  would  take 
the  matter  seriously.  Neither  the  state's  attorney's  office  nor  the 
police  could  be  brought  to  realize  what  was  going  on.  But,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  official  records  show  that  in  the  last  half  dozen  years 
more  horses  have  been  stolen  in  Cook  County  than  in  the  states  of 
Texas,  North  and  South  Dakota  and  Wyoming  put  together." 

Whereupon  began  one  of  the  most  important  and  most  successful 
outlaw  hunts  known  to  recent  American  criminal  history ;  a  hunt  that 
freed  the  Cook  County  towns  and  farms  of  the  horse  thief  trust  and 
brought  Chicago's  suburbs  once  more  within  the  bounds  of  civilized 
law  and  order. 

It  was  when,  in  October,  W13,  the  bandits  descended  upon  the 
farms  near  Chicago  Heights  one  night  and  drove  off  fifteen  fine  horses 
that  the  state's  attorney's  office  gained  its  first  clue.  It  was  learned 
that  in  one  of  the  Pennsylvania  railway's  freight  yards  in  Chicago  a 
car  had  been  reserved  to  transport  horses  to  Pittsburgh.  This  car 
was  watched,  and  when  five  men  appeared  with  twelve  horses  they 
were  arrested. 

"So  far,  so  good,"  said  Mr.  Hoyne.  "But  these  men  are  only  small 
rascals.  We  haven't  got  to  the  brains  of  the  trust  yet.  Have  these 
prisoners  watched  night  and  day." 

It  was  in  pursuance  of  these  orders  that  Detective  Sergeant  Wil- 

Twenty-eight 


iiam  Murnane,  a  few  clays  later,  saw  a  key  pass  between  one  of  the 
prisoners  in  the  county  jail  and  a  woman  who  had  been  a  witness  on 


These  fine  horses,  belonging  to  Ferd  Bramsteadt.  living  near  Chicago  Heights, 
were  stolen  by,  and  recovered  from,  the  horsethief  trust.  -More  horses  were 
annually  stolen  in  Cook  County  than  in  four  cowboy  states  combined,  including 
Texas. 

behalf  of  the  thieves.  The  woman  was  followed  and  watched.  It  soon 
began  to  be  appreciated  that  she  was  no  mere  friend  of  the  jailed 
outlaws  but,  in  fact,  their  means  of  communication  writh  the  heads  of 
the  gang.  Enough  information  was  obtained  to  convict  the  woman 
of  perjury  and  she  was  arrested  and  bound  over  to  the  grand  jury  by 
Judge  Brentano.  She  thereupon  confessed  herself  the  wife  of  Frank 
Gordon,  alias  Smalley,  alias  O'Gorman,  one  of  the  most  notorious 
horse  thieves  in  the  United  States. 

The  woman  challenged  the  authorities,  however,  to  find  her  hus- 
band. But  by  watching  the  mails  State's  Attorney  Hoyne  found  that 
Gordon  was  in  San  Francisco,  in  charge  of  the  western  office  of  the 
"business."  Gordon  was  captured  by  surprise,  disarmed,  and  brought 
to  Chicago  where  he  received  the  maximum  sentence — sixty  years. 

A  chance  admission  of  Mrs.  Gordon's  also  set  the  prosecuting 
office's  detectives  upon  the  trail  of  Harry  Lutz,  alias  Burkhart,  alias 
Hartman,  alias  Dunlap,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  trust's  operations  in 
Chicago  and  apparently  its  head.  But  Lutz  escaped  from  Chicago. 
Hoyne's  detective  followed  him  from  Illinois  to  San  Francisco,  from 
San  Francisco  to  San  Diego,  from  San  Diego  up  and  down  the  state. 

Twenty-nine 


Finally  at  Stockton,  in  a  regular  oiovie  finish,  the  officer  of  the  law 
closed  in  on  the  desperado  and  captured  him  just  as  he  was  about  to 
escape  into  the  hills. 

Lutz  feigned  resignation.  He  went  to  jail  to  await  extradition 
papers,  professing  a  willingness  to  return  and  pay  the  penalty  of  his 
felonies.  But  two  days  later  a  penciled  note  was  found  under  one  of 
the  barred  windows  of  the  jail.  It  read :  "This  here  horse  thief  feller 
they  put  in  Tuesday  has  made  it  up  with  the  three  other  men  in  here 
to  trip  up  the  jailor  tonight  and  get  to  his  gun  and  shoot  him  so  they 
kin  make  a  getaway. — Quinn." 

The  guards  being  doubled  Lutz  could  not  escape.  But  the  head 
of  the  trust,  somewhere  in  America — State's  Attorney  Hoyne  had 
long  since  made  up  his  mind  that  the  genius  of  the  gang  was  still 
free — managed  to  supply  the  prisoner  with  funds  and  to  start  habaes 
corpus  proceedings,  which  would  have  given  him  a  chance  to  escape 
before  the  officer  could  arrive  from  Illinois.  Assistant  State's  Attorney 
Dwight  McKay  was  rushed  to  California,  papers  were  secured  and 
Lutz'  attorneys  beaten  by  the  trick  of  taking  the  prisoner  twenty 
miles  across  country  in  an  automobile  and  flagging  the  limited  train 
between  stations.  Lutz  was  tried  and  sentenced  to  sixty  years. 

The  gang  was  now  all  behind  the  bars  except  its  real  heads — Abe 
Lubin  and  his  son,  Max.  The  younger  Lubin  was  soon  caught  and 
given  the  maximum  sentence.  But  it  took  two  years  to  apprehend 
the  father.  Finally,  after  a  dozen  changes  of  name  and  abode,  he 
was  run  down  by  one  of  Hoyne's  officers.  But,  when  the  warrant 
he  had  so  long  eluded  was  read  to  the  old  man,  he  fell  over  dead. 

From  first  to  Ir.st  twenty-seven  men  were  convicted  and  sent  to 
Joliet.  The  most  important  of  these  were:  Fred  Kleidon,  Edward 
Lozarski,  Harry  Lozarski,  A.  Cunningham,  D.  J.  Dargen,  Owen  Dough- 
erty, Daniel  Felletti,  Frank  M.  Jordan,  Geo.  Graham,  Peter  Hahn, 
Stanley  Kalkowski,  Geo.  Lindblom,  Harry  Lutz,  Jas.  Mooney,  Jr.,  Edw. 
Rasmussen,  Jos.  Sintowski  and  Robt.  Thomas.  Many  of  the  stolen  horses 
also  were  recovered,  in  this  one  short  campaign  State's  Attorney  Hoyne 
freed  the  farmers  of  Cook  County  from  a  band  of  outlaws  who  had  had 
them  at  their  mercy  for  years. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Auto  Thief,  Auto  Bandit  and  Auto  Murderer 

Explaining  How  the  Motor  Car  Has  Come  to  Be  the  Main  Factor  in  Crime 

IN  THE  old  days  it  was  the  horse  that  figured  in  crime.    Either  he 
'  was  stolen  by  the  horse  thief  or  he  assisted  the  bandit  in  his  deeds 
of  violence.    Today,  however,  the  automobile  has  become  the  center 
around  which  all  crime  revolves.     The  car  is  now  the  easiest  and  most 
valuable  loot  that  city  or  country  affords,  and  it  is  the  best  friend  of 

Thirtv 


the  auto  bandit  and  the  best  weapon  of  the  auto  murderer. 

The  automobilej  in  fact,  has  been  making  criminal  history  in  Chicago 
in  the  last  three  years.  First  we  demonstrated  to  the  world  that  an 
auto  could  be  considered  as  an  instrument  of  murder — Hoyne  sent 
Lawrence  Lindbloom  and  Fred  Hrudek  to  the  penitentiary  for  murder 
with  an  automobile,  a  new  crime.  Then  we  had  our  auto  bandits, 
the  Webb  gang,  that  terrorized  the  city  and  murdered  Detective  Peter 
Hart,  and  the  Eddie  Mack  gang  that  held  up  the  Washington  Park 
State  Bank  and  was  caught,  tried  and  sent  to  Joliet  all  within  five 
weeks — a  record  for  celerity.  And  now  the  city  is  struggling  with  a 
motor  stealing  trust  that  is  proving  one  of  the  hardest  problems  the 
police  have  ever  been  called  upon  to  meet. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  large  part  of  all  the  gun  men,  confidence 
men,  burglars,  ex-convicts  and  other  expert  thieves  of  the  nation  have 
turned  their  attention  lately  to  stealing  automobiles,  and  have  made 
Chicago  the  center  from  which  they  work.  This  city  is  particularly 
favored  because  the  thief  can  get  his  stolen  car  across  a  state  line 
in  so  short  a  time.  So  bold  and  successful  had  the  auto  thieves 
become  that  the  entire  time  of  one  of  Hoyne's  assistant  state's  attor- 
neys is  now  being  taken  up  with  these  cases  and  two  additional 
detective  sergeants  from  the  bureau  are  daily  assigned  to  auto  work. 
Because  of  this  activity  twenty-five  indictments  have  recently  been 
returned  and  the  motor  thieves  are  now  on  trial.  Sixty  cases  are  now 
pending  and  fifty  convictions  have  been  obtained  since  January  1, 
most  of  them  to  the  penitentiary.  As  a  result  .the  number  of  cars 
stolen  has  very  greatly  decreased. 

If  your  car  has  disappeared  in  the  last  year  it  is  probable  that  it 
was  taken  by  some  one  of  the  following  thieves,  for  they  are  the 
heads  of  the  trust:  Jack  Almony  alias  "Red  Jack,"  Bennie  Klieman 
alias  "Nemo,"  Walter  Furniss,  Earl  Dear,  Ed  Tennigkite  alias 
"Tenny,"  Frankie  Burns,  Frank  Parker,  Earl  Harris  and  Ed  Arn- 
heim.  Jack  Almony  and  Earl  Dear  are  ex-gun  men,  against  whom  a 
number  of  cases  for  robbery  with  a  gun  have  been  pending  at  various 
times  in  the  criminal  courts,  and  these  two,  together  with  Walter 
Furniss  and  Bennie  Klieman,  are  probably  the  most  expert  automo- 
bile thieves  that  ever  worked  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 

The  work  of  the  auto  thieves  has  been  systematized.  The  theft  of 
a  car  is  no  haphazard  matter.  Your  car,  let  us  say,  has  been  picked 
out  for  appropriation.  You  are  followed  and  watched.  It  is  ascer- 
tained that  you  are  very  careful  about  the  car  at  all  times  except  for 
the  few  minutes  in  which  you  go  into  your  bank,  or  eat  luncheon, 
or  take  a  glance  at  the  stock  market  quotations.  The  moment  is  dis- 
covered when  your  machine  may  be  made  away  with  with  the  least 
trouble  and  the  smallest  chance  of  interference.  Then,  some  day,  the 
car  is  gone. 

In  every  gang  there  is  one  expert  mechanic,  a  man  who  generally 

Thirty-one 


has  worked  for  a  considerable  period  of  time  in  one  of  the  large 
automobile  factories  of  the  country.  This  man  is  familiar  with  every 
identification  number  in  almost  every  automobile,  and  when  a  car  is 
stolen,  it  is  generally  run  into  some  private  garage  where  the  expert 
mechanic  changes  all  the  numbers. 

After  the  numbers  on  your  car  have  been  changed  it  is  driven 
across  the  state  line,  placed  in  some  fence's  garage — usually  a  public 
one  doing,  to  all  appearances,  a  legitimate  business — and  later  sold. 
The  salesmen  are  usually  confidence  men  with  long  police  records. 
Among  the  celebrated  stolen  auto  salesmen  who  have  operated  on 
Chicago  cars  in  the  last  year  are  Louis  M.  Erb,  Walter  E.  Relihan 
and  Frank  Miller. 

The  great  difficulty  in  these  auto  stealing  cases  is  the  identification 
of  the  car.  So  cleverly  do  the  thieves  change  the  stolen  autos  that 
the  owners  are  often  unable  to  identify  them.  Every  car  owner 
should  make  a  point  o'f  establishing  certain  private  marks  on  his 
machine  that  the  thieves  would  overlook  and  which  would  enable  him 
to  satisfy  a  jury  as  to  his  ownership.  Jack  Almony  was  formerly  a 
court  reporter  and  it  was  through  him  the  trust  was  able  to  make  a 
study  of  the  problem  of  legal  identification  of  cars.  State's  Attorney 
Hoyne  is  now  organizing  a  special  automobile  department  so  that  the 
prosecutor  and  others  on  the  staff  will  be  experts  in  automobile  identi- 
fication. Hoyne  has  also  made  a  fight  against  the  practice  of  letting 
these  high  class  criminals  out  on  small  bonds  which  they  are  glad  to 
forfeit.  Earl  Dear,  as  a  result  of  this  policy,  is  now  in  the  county 
jail  under*  a  bond  demand  of  $57,000  which  he  cannot  supply. 

That  Chicago  has  been  regarded  as  the  center  of  operations  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  among  those  under  indictment  are  the  three 
Whitehead  brothers,  who  live  in  -Birmingham,  Ala.  Among  the  im- 
portant cases  pending  are  those  against  Major  William  R.  Stiles  and  his 
wife,  Elvina  E.  Stiles.  Mrs.  Stiles  was  a  bondswoman  and  came  in 
contact  with  Jack  Almony,  Earl  Dear  and  other  leaders  who  induced 
her  to  sell  their  cars.  An  interesting  conviction  was  that  of  Louis  B. 
Krampe,  who  was'  supposed  to  operate  a  barber  agency  on  Fifth  Avenue. 
He  was  not  a  member  of  the  trust.  His  method  was  to  hire  small 
boys  to  steal  small  cars  and  to  sell  the  vehicles  through  the  want  ad 
department  of  the  daily  papers.  This  was  the  first  conviction  of  a 
receiver  of  stolen  automobiles  secured  in  Chicago  in  a  number  of 
years.  A  very  important  branch  of  the  trust  is  said  to  be  operating 
under  the  direction  of  a  former  Chicago  policeman  named  Buckmin- 
ster.  This  man  was  not  long  ago  indicted  as  a  wiretapper  and  a  case 
against  him  for  arson  is  now  in  the  supreme  court. 

The  greatest  fence  in  the  automobile  stealing  world  is  said  to  be 
Ira  Bond  of  Minneapolis,  a  "millionaire-broker."  He  is  supposed  to 
have  been  a  member  of  the  old  Mayberry  gang,  notorious  swindlers. 
His  operations  are  almost  a  by-word  in  the  Northwest.  Hoyne  has 

Thirty-tun, 


Is 


Thirty- three 


at  last  succeeded  in  securing"  an  indictment  against  this  prince  of  re- 
ceivers and  it  looks  now  as  if  his  criminal  career  was  over. 

The  sentence  of  death  recently  passed  upon  Lloyd  Bopp  for  the 
killing  of  Herman  Malow,  a  motorcycle  policeman  of  Oak  Park,  re- 
calls the  exploits  of  the  Wehb  gang  of  auto  bandits.  Bopp  was  in  a 
stolen  motor  at  the  time  and  his  chauffeur  was  Frank  McErlane,  alias 
Walter  Scott,  who  was  "Teddy"  Webb's  driver  on  the  bandit  cruises 
that  terrorized  the  city  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1912.  When 
the  other  bandits,  Robert  Webb,  James  Perry,  George  Connery  and 
Claude  Rose,  were  sent  to  the  penitentiary  some  foolish  idea  of  mercy 
allowed  McErlane  to  go  to  Pontiac,  when  he  was  recently  paroled. 

The  nightly  exploits  of  the  Webb  bandits  have  almost  been  for- 
gotten by  the  public.  The  darkening  hours  of  December  3d  and  6th, 
1912,  however,  were  made  memorable  to  the  authorities.  On  the 
first  of  these  nights  the  bandits  smashed  in  five  large  jewelry  store 
windows  on  the  north  side  and  succeeded  in  collecting  about  $1,800 
worth  of  plunder.  At  667  North  Clark  Street  they  passed  a  group  of 
policemen  and  opened  fire  on  the  officers  just  to  let  them  knowr  that 
the  car  carried  the  famous  auto  gang.  On  the  way  downtown  Officer 
Fred  Sticken  stepped  on  the  running  board  of  the  motor  to  place 
them  under  arrest  for  speeding.  They  opened  fire'  on  the  officer,  one 
bullet  taking  effect  in  his  body.  They  threw  him  off  the  machine  and 
continued  snooting  at  him  as  he  lay  in  the  street. 

Three  nights  later  they  held  up  four  stores  and  shot  two  persons, 
all  within  a  half  an  hour.  While  they  were  at  work  in  the  bakery 
of  Margaret  Glaser  they  shot  at  a  citizen  who  was  so  unfortunate  as 
to  come  in  for  a  loaf  of  bread.  Ten  minutes  later  they  drilled  C.  A. 
Sherman,,  312  East  Garfield  Boulevard,  through  the  breast  when  he 
refused  to  open  his.  cash  register. 

Ten  days  later  Hoyne's  officers  at  last  got  on  the  track  of  the 
bandits  and  Perry  and  McErlane  were  captured.  Webb,  who  was 
with  them,  escaped.  The  proceeds  of  fifty  burglaries  and  hold-ups 
were  found.  On  January  20,  1913,  Detective  Peter  Hart  was  sent  to 
1617  Wabash  Avenue,  where  Webb  was  believed  to  be  hiding.  Webb 
killed  the  detective  and  escaped  over  the  roofs.  He  was  caught  later, 
however,  and  is  now  doing  a  life  sentence  at  Joliet. 

The  most  interesting  thing  about  the  other  gang  of  auto  bandits, 
that  which  included  Eddie  Alack,  the  notorious  pickpocket ;  Harry 
Kramer;  Charlie  Kramer,  alias  "Big  Polly";  Alex  Brodie  and  Bennie 
Feine  was  the  rapidity  of  their  transit  to  the  penitentiary  following 
their  removal  of  $15,000  from  the  Washington  Park  bank.  At  8 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  January  27,  1916,  they  entered  the  bank  in 
true  western  style  and  got  away  with  the  plunder.  All  of  the  gang 
but  Eddie  Mack  were  New  Yorkers  who  had  come  out  to  grow  up 
with  the  country  and  show  the  tank  town  real  metropolitan  methods. 
Hoyne  felt  that  such  a  gang  should  be  eradicated  at  once.  Forty- 

Thirty-four 


eight  hours  after  the  hold-up  the  bandits  were  arrested  and  on  Febru- 
ary 10  they  were  placed  on  trial.  On  March  4  a  verdict  of  guilty  was 
brought  in  and  two  days  later  they  took  up  a  life  residence  at  Joliet. 
Hoyne  and  the  police  were  praised  for  this  work,  but  the  state's 
attorney  received  even  greater  praise  when  he  succeeded  in  getting  a 
court  of  law  to  accept  his  theory  that  an  automobile,  in  the  hands  of 
a  reckless  and  brutal  driver,  should  be  regarded  as  an  instrument  of 
murder  and  classed  with  the  revolver,  stiletto  and  poison  phial.  These 
two  convictions  established  a  world's  precedent  and  helped  to  cut  down 
the  number  of  brutal  killings  by  motor  car. 

Lawrence  Lindbloom  was  put  on  trial  April  30,  1913,  for  the  mur- 
der of  Joseph  Weiss,  whom  he  had  run  over  on  Cottage  Grove  Avenue 
at  East  Twenty-fifth  Street.  Lindbloom  was  driving  at  thirty-five 
miles  an  hour.  Weiss  was  caught  in  the  machinery  and  dragged  more 
than  two  blocks — in  fact,  the  chauffeur  only  stopped  an^l  gave  himself 
up  because  the  mangled  form  had  brought  the  car  to  a  stop  and  Lind- 
bloom coud  make  it  go  no  further.  On  the  jury  that  convicted  Lind- 
bloom were  four  automobile  owners. 

'The  second  conviction  was  of  Fred  Hrodek,  who  had  run  over 
Patrick  J.  Condon  in  Austin  en  the  night  of  March  20,  1913.  As  in  the 
other  case,  the  body  was^, caught  in  the  machinery  of  the  car  and  Hrodek 
drove  several  blocks  in  an  effort  to  escape,  but  was  captured,  in  effect, 
by  his  victim.  When  several  bystanders  suggested  that  the  car  be 
turned  over  so  that  the  body  could  be  liberated,  Hrodek  angrily  de- 
manded: "What  good'll  that  do?  He's  dead,  ain't  he?  You  can't 
turn  this  car  over  and  smash  it  all  up."  Hrodek  was  given  a  fourteen- 
year  sentence. 

At  the  time  of  these  convictions  the  Chicago  Record  Herald  said  in 
comment :' 

"For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Illinois  a  man  was  convicted 
yesterday  of  murder  with  an  automobile.  His  punishment  was  fixed  at 
fourteen  years  in  the  penitentiary." 

The  Chicago  Daily  News  also  said: 

"Vicious  driving  of  automobiles  in  Chicago  is  a  scandal  as  well  as 
an  embarrassment  and  a  peril  to  law-abiding  and  considerate  owners 
of  motor  cars.  It  is  high  time  that  killings  by  reckless  drivers  of  motor 
vehicles  should  be  recognized  as  grave  crimes  to  be  punished  by  peni- 
tentiary terms." 

The  necessity  for  such  convictions  as  this  is  shown  by  the  following 
table,  giving  the  principal  causes  of  sudden  death  in  Chicago  in  1915: 

Suicide  .   671 

Miscellaneous   falls    261 

Automobiles 254 

Railroad 239 

Homicide 232 

Industrial 228 

Thirty-live 


Asphyxiation .  .   ^19 

Burns  and  scalds 193 

Street   car    .  .    139 

In  the  year  1905  there  were  only  five  killings  by  automobile.     In 
eight  months  of  1916  there  have  been  166  killings. 


CHAPTER  IX 


In  Which  the  Most  Powerful  of  All  Trusts  Is  Broken  Up  and  Property  and 
Labor  Together  Are  Freed  from  Extortion  and  Abuse 

AT  THE  TIME  the  fourteen  robber  barons  of  the  plate  glass 
smashing  trust  were  convicted  last  July,  there  was  naturally 
an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  defendants  to  make  the  affair  a 
persecution  of  union  labor,  for  the  thugs  and  blackmailers  on  trial  had 
gained  control  of  the  union  organization  as  the  best  means  of  further- 
ing their  purpose  and  of  enriching  their  own  personal  pockets.  But 
the  persecution  idea  did  not  go  very  far,  principally,  I  believe,  because 
the  union  members  themselves  had  suffered  the  most  and  had  gained 
the  least.  The  best  proof  that  union  labor  in  general  approved  the 
conviction  is  shown,  to  my  mind,  by  the  fact  that,  of  the  trial  jury, 
three  men  were  at  the  time  members  of  Chicago  unions  and  several  lot" 
the  others  had  in  the  past  been  members. 

As  for  Hoyne  himself — he  had  originated  and  carried  through  in 
the  public  interest  the  whole  campaign  that  led  to  the  convictions — 
his  personal  and  public  record  made  him  safe.  Union  leaders  and 
union  men  both  knew  him  as  the  friend  of  organized  labor.  I  can 
only  add  my  little  bit  to  the  general  opinion  on  this  point  by  reprint- 
ing a  remark  of  his,  made  at  the  time  he  acted  as  the  labor  member  of 
the  board  of  arbitration  in  the  street  car  strike,  which  gave  the  men 
the  best  award  ever  received  in  a  Chicago  labor  controversy. 

"Under  modern  industrial  conditions/'  he  said,  "unionism  is  the 
only  support  of  a  living  wage,  and  upon  the  principle  of  unionism 
depends  the  comfort,  welfare,  happiness  and  opportunity  of  thou- 
sands of  families — mothers,  wives  and  children  of  workers." 

The  Chicago  Herald,  appreciating  the  situation,  said  in  an  editorial 
of  December  6,  1915: 

"With  the  indictment  of  fifty-four  men  on  numerous  counts  as  a 
result  of  the  long  investigation  into  certain  labor  conditions  in  this 
city,  the  necessity  of  restating  and  for  keeping  the  real  issue  clearly 
in  mind  again  arises.  Already  there  is  evidence  of  a  desire  to  becloud 
the  issue  and  represent  the  natural  and  orderly  process  of  the  law  as 
an  attack  on  union  labor. 

"The  point  at  issue  and  the  only  point  at  issue  is  whether  these 

Thirty-six' 


men  are  guilty  as  charged.  The  grand  jury,  after  hearing  the  evi- 
dence against  them,  found  it  sufficiently  impressive  to  justify  indict- 
ments. The  state's  attorney,  whose  interests  are  certainly  not  bound 
up  in  the  injury  of  union  labor,  announces  his  intention  to  press  the 
prosecution.  The  defendants  will  enjoy  the  benefit  of  every  legal  pre- 
sumption and  every  legal  safeguard.  The  only  advantage  they  will  be 
compelled  to  surrender  is  the  privilege  of  associating  union  labor  with 
them  in  the  box  as  a  defendant. 

"It  is  stated  that  union  labor  all  over  the  country  will  watch  the  trials 
of  the  men  indicted  very  closely.  Union  labor  should.  Union  labor  has 
a  special  interest  in  the  punishment  of  any  fraud  and  corruption  on  the 
part  of  its  representatives  that  may  be  shown  to  cixst.  Of  all  the  suf- 
ferers from  the  graft  and  extortion  of  so-called  'labor  representatives' 
union  labor  suffers  most.  It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  every 
decent  union  mati  realizes  this  fact  clearly." 

The  glass  smashers  had  a  hold  on  the  life  of  the  cuy  such  as  no 
other  criminal  organization  ever  secured.  With  the  wire-tappers  and 
others,  the  victims  often  fell  into  the  trap,  partly  or  wholly,  because  they 
had  themselves  been  susceptible  to  a  dishonest  suggestion.  In  other  lines 
the  victims  had  been  individuals,  more  or  less  helpless.  But  to  the  glass 
smashing  barons  all  persons  or  corporations  that  built  houses  or  lived 
in  them  had  to  pay  tribute.  No  business  concern  was  strong  enough  to 
escape. 

The  system  employed  by  the  plate  glass  barons  was  simple  and  direct. 
These  so-called  business  agents  within  the  painters  district  council  and 
affiliated  organizations,  met  regularly  twice  a  week  to  put  new  names  on 
the  black  list  or  take  old  ones  off.  This  list  was  sent  three  times  a  week 
to  all  the  glass  houses.  Suppose  you  owned  a  business  building.  It 
wouldn't  make  much  difference  where,  it  was,  so  long  as  it  was  south  of 
Waukegan,  north  of  Chicago  Heights  or  east  of  Western  Springs,  but 
the  Chicago  loop  district  was  the  favorite  hunting  ground.  Some  one 
of  the  robber  barons  would  take  a  look  at  your  building  or  at  you  and 
decide  that  you  would  make  an  eligible  party  to  go  on  the  black  list. 
On  it  your  building  would  go  at  the  next  meeting. 

In  a  day  or  two  "Lusher"  Hipp  or  "Dutch"  Klems  or  "Muckles" 
Shields  or  Joseph  Casey  or  Jim  AlcCullongh  or  "Ronehead"  Clayton  or 
"Fuzzy"  Fussy  or  Jack  Miller  or  Tom  Flanigan  or  "Smash"  Hanson  or 
Charley  Gibbard  or  Ed  Hammond  or  Elmer  L.  Hitt  or  some  other  one 
of  the  window  wreckers  would  get  an  order  to  drop  in  at  your  place 
and  wreck  the  lights.  In  the  earlier  days  of  the  trust,  the  ruffian  detailed 
for  the  work  would  have  hurled  a  brick  or  a  pop  bottle  or  a  stone  through 
your  window  and  there  would  have  been  a  big  crash  and  the  necessity 
for  a  hasty  and  unseemly  flight.  But  by  the  time  you  got  into  trouble 
the  plan  had  become  more  nearly  perfect.  The  man  who  was  working 
for  you  on  your  windows  would  have  dropped  in  at  your  place  in  an 
automobile,  and  he  would  have  had  a  specially  constructed  slingshot.  He 
would  havj  loaded  this  with  an  iron  nut  bound  round  with  electricians' 

Thirty-seven 


tape  and  fired  it  through  your  plate  from  a  safe  distance  and  with  a 
minimum  of  noise.  No  glass  would  have  been  strong  enough  to  with- 
stand the  shot  either. 

Next  morning  your  tenant  would  call  you  up  and  say:  ''Someone  has 
smashed  my  show  window.  What're  you  going  to  do  about  it?" 

"Have  the  insurance  company  make  good  with  a  new  glass,  of  course," 
you  would  reply.  Then  you  would  call  up  the  insurance  company  and 
the  insurance  company  would  call  up  the  plate  glass  company  and  say: 
"\Ye  want  you  to  set  a  new  show  window  in  the  building." 

"Sorry,"  the  glass  man  would  reply,  "  but  we  can't  do  it.  The  place 
is  on  the  black  list." 

Then  you  would  fuss  around  a  while  and  your  tenant  would  fuss  a 
good  deal  more  and  finally  you  would  get  the  glass  company  to  tell  you 
what  to  do  about  it  and  the  glass  company  would  probably  tell  you  to 
wander  over^to  Johnson's  saloon  and  see  if  you  could  find  a  business 
agent  there. 

At  Johnson's  saloon,  sure  enough,  you  would  find  a  business  agent 
and  he  would  take  you  up  into  the  balcony  and  call  you  names  and  tell 
you  that  you  had  been  fined  $10  or  $1,000,  according  to  your  rating  in 
the  trust's  private  Bradstreet.  After  you  had  thus  purified  yourself  and 
departed,  the  cashier  of  the  trust  would  notify  the  central  office  that  you 
had  been  declared  fair,  the  business  agent  of  the  glaziers'  union  would 
notify  the  glass  company  that  you  were  fair,  and  by  the  time  you  got 
home  you  would  probably  find  the  men  at  work". 

Much  the  same  methods  obtained  with  new  construction  and  the 
remodeling  of  old  buildings.  It  was  always  necessary  to  board  up  a 
building  until  a  settlement  had  been  made.  The  glass  companies  denied 
strenuously  that  they  had  any  agreement  with  the  glass  smashers  but  it 
is  certain  they  had  nothing  to  lose  by  the  frequent  replacing  of  windows 
that  might  otherwise  not  have  broken  for  years. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  to  what  figure  property  was  bled.     But  the 
sum  was  great,  as  the  following  enumeration  for  nine  months  will  show  : 
Known  losses  to  plate  glass  insurance  companies 
between    January,    1915,    and    October,    1915.  ...$  6,272 

Estimated  losses  for  same  period 25,000 

Known  extortions  for  same  period 11,980 

Estimated  extortions  for  same  period 50,000 

Losses    caused    and    damage    done    on   account    of 
black  list  while  the  same  was  in   operation   for 
about  three  years  prior  to  October,  1915,  includ- 
ing  the    dynamiting   of    Andrew    Wash's    house 
($1,500),      driving      Kloepfel     into     bankruptcy 
($7,500),   driving   Kronenberger  out  of  business 
($5,000),  tenants'  losses,  owners'  losses,  contract- 
ors' losses,  workmen's  losses Impossible  to  es- 
timate, but  con- 
servatively $150.- 
Thirty-eight  000    to    $200,000. 


Extortions  for  the  same  period -.  Also     impossible 

.  to   estimate,  but 

c  o  n  s  e  rvatively 
the  same  as 
above,  if  not 
more. 

The  situation  can  be  grasped  when*  it  is  known  that  the  authori- 
ties found  between  four  and  five  hundred  places  on  the  various  black 
lists  obtained  since  October,  1915,  and  that  out  of  these  were  inves- 
tigated less  than  half. 

The  innocent  victims  of  this  system  also  numbered  thousands 
within  the  ranks  of  the  unions  themselves.  They  had  to  sit  by  idle 
for  weeks  at  a  time  because  of  the  hundreds  of  strikes  the  grafters 
called  for  the  purpose  of  shaking  money  into  their  own  personal 
pockets.  The  privates  in  the  union  ranks,  of  course,  had  no  way  of 
knowing  that  the  strikes  from  which  they  suffered  were  unjustified 
and  were  not  called  in  their  interest. 

As  a  result  of  Hoyne's  crusade  Fred  Mader  and  Charles  Crowley, 
respectively  business  agent  and  assistant  business  agent  of  the 
fixture  hangers'  organization,  were  sent  to  state's  prison  for  three 
years.  Hugo  Hahn  and  Walter  E.  Staley,  business  agents  of  the 
glaziers'  union,  and  Ray  Stewart,  business  agent  of  the  wood 
finishers'  union,  we.re  sent  for  two  years,  and  Frank  Curran,  one  of  the 
business  agents  of  the  painters'  district  council,  for  one  year.  John  E. 
Cleary,  former  business  agent  of  the  electrical  workers'  union ; 
Isadore  Gordon,  business  agent  of  the  painters'  council ;  Harry  H. 
Grass,  former  business  agent  of  the  same  body,  and  William  E. 
Nestor,  another  of  its  retired  business  agents,  were  each  fined  $2,000. 
Charles  Hansen,  of  one  of  the  painters'  locals,  was  fined  $1,500; 
Nicholas  Pekelsma,  another  of  the  district  council's  business  agents, 
was  fined  $750;  and  John  W.  Murphy,  assistant  business  agent  of 
the  electricians,  and  George  Tuckbreiter,  another  business  agent  of 
the  council,  were  each  assessed  $500. 

Windows  in  Chicago  are  seldom  broken  now  except  by  accident. 

CHAPTER  X 
The  Gunmen 

Discussing  the  Crimes  of  Violence  That  Have  Made  Chicago    (In) famous — 
With  a  List  of  Some  Important  Convictions 

TO  PERSONS  unacquainted  with  the  appalling  amount  of  crime 
in  Chicago  it  seems  incredible  that  since  the  first  of  1913  there 
have  been  284  men  sent  to  Joliet,  Chester  and  Pontiac  for  the 
crime  of  "robbery  with  a  gun."    Of  these,  seventy-nine  were  sentenced 
to   the    reformatory   because    of  their   youth    and    lack   of   criminal 
record.     But  the  more  than  200  remaining  were  nearly  all  hardened 

Thirty-nine 


gun  men.  Many  of  them  had  been  committing  serious  offenses 
against  the  law  for  years  'and  had  escaped  with,  at  most,  a  few 
months  in  the  reformatory. 

The  serious  problem  of  gun-toting  receives  the  attention  of  Judge 
Marcus  Kavanagh  in  an  address,  reprinted  in  the  Chicago  Examiner 
of  April  27,  1914,  under  th«  headline,  "Judge  Kavanagh  demands 
public  support  for  Hoyne's  anti-gunmen  campaign."  Among  other 
things  the  judge  said : 

"The  carrying  of  arms  is  mainly  responsible  for  the  frightful 
mortality  shown  by  the  criminal  records  of  our  courts.  Gun  carry- 
ing is  the  principal  reason  why  prison  population  in  the  United 
States  has  steadily  increased  since  1850,  while  in  every  other  civilized 
country  in  the  world  it  has  decreased  each  decade.  The  people  of 
the  United  States  are  asleep,  and  until  they  wake  up  their  servants 
will  be  asleep.  The  judges  should  wake  up  here  in  Chicago  and 
support  the  state's  attorney,  and  the  public  should  insist  that  every 
branch  of  government  give  him  support." 

That  there  was  a  general  public  suspicion  that  the  criminal 
coterie  in  the  detective  bureau  was  protecting  the  gun  men  is  shown 
by  the  newspapers  of  that  time.  The  Examiner  on  April  19, 
1914,  headlined :  "Hoyne  forces  police  to  do  their  duty,  and  arrests 
gunmen."  The  Herald,  in  an  editorial  of  the  19th,  printed  this  sen- 
tence: "Mr.  Hoyne  is  to  be  commended  for  his  attitude  in  endeavor- 
ing to  compel  the  police  to  drive  out  the  gunmen."  And  the  Ameri- 
can on  April  20th  used  this  caption:  "Hoyne  causes  twenty- four 
raid  squads  to  begin  ridding  the  city  of  gunmen." 

Of  the.  gun  men  sent  over  the  road  in  1913,  1914,  1915  and  the 
first  half  of  the  present  year,  180  went  to  the  state  penitentiary  at 
Joliet,  twenty-five  to  the  penitentiary  at  Chester  and  seventy-nine  to 
the  reformatory  at  Pontiac.  A  sketch  of  the  criminal  career  of  two 
or  three  of  them  will  serve  to  introduce  the  whole  crew. 

James  Clark,  William  Hogan  and  Frederick  J.  Corrigan,  on  Sep- 
tember 21,  1914,  drove  up  in  an  automobile  to  the  Franklin  Park 
State  Bank,  entered  the  bank  and  covered  the  cashier,  Walter  Joss, 
with  their  revolvers.  When  Joss  made  an  effort  to  reach  his  own 
weapon  Clark  shot  him  through  the  right  lung  and  the  trio  fled 
without  getting  any  money. 

Clark's  record  is  as  follows:  On  December  21,  1903,  as  Frank 
Meyer,  he  was  sentenced  to  the  house  of  correction  for  burglary. 
On  June  4,  1904,  as  Albert  Kashellek,  a  charge  of  robbery  was 
stricken  off.  On  January  24,  1905,  as  Albert  Kashelek,  sentenced  to 
Pontiac  for  burglary.  On  July  10,  1908,  paroled.  On  April  14,  1909, 
discharged.  On  November  21,  1909,  with  an  unknown  confederate, 
held  up  the  saloon  of  J.  B.  Jorgenson,  4400  West  Madison  street, 
and  shot  and  killed  William  Belden,  a  customer.  Was  held  by  the 
coroner  without  bail.  In  the  December  term  of  the  grand  jury  one 

Forty 


of  several  charges  of  robbery  against  him  -was  no-billed.  On  Jan- 
uary 21,  1910,  he  was  found  not  guilty  of  another  robbery  charge. 
On  April  9,  1910,  he  was  sentenced  to  Joliet  for  a  term  of  from 
one  year  to  life  on  two  charges  of  robbery.  On  May  6,  1914,  he  was 
paroled.  The  following  September  found  him  attempting  the  Frank- 
lin Park  job,  which  led  to  his  return  to  the  penitentiary,  where  he 
is  now  likely  to  remain. 

William  Hogan  had  a  similar  career.  On  December  15,  1905, 
as  William  Ziek,  he  was  sentenced  to  Pontiac  on  a  charge  of  rob- 
bery and  assault  to  kill.  On  March  31,  1909,  he  was  paroled.  On 
November  12,  1909,  he  was  discharged.  On  December  16,  1910,  a 
charge  against  him  of  robbery  was  no-billed.  On  March  30,  1911, 
he  was  sentenced  to  Joliet  fgr  from  one  year  to  life  on  a  charge  of 
robbery.  On  March  25,  1914,  he  was  paroled.  On  September  6, 
1914,  he  held  up  Fred  C.  Blanchard  in  the  latter's  saloon,  and  on 
the  18th  §  held  up  Nathan  Marshall's  saloon.  On  the  21st  we  find 
him  at  Franklin  Park,  almost  as  busy  as  a  Chautauqua  lecturer. 

Corrigan's  only  other  crime  of  record  was  a  successful  piece  of 
njghwaymanry,  performed  in  company  with  one  Seth  Piper.  The 
two  lay  in  wait  for  Warrington  McAvoy,  a  messenger  for  the  Gar- 
rield  Park  Bank,  struck  him  over  the  head  from  behind,  and  ran 
away  in  an  automobile  with  a  satchel  containing  $4,100  in  currency 
and  $14,000  in  checks.  The  checks  were  later  found  in  a  vacant  lot, 
but  the  money  was  not  recovered. 

Such  records  as  these  are  rather  discouraging  to  the  reformatory 
system.  It  did  not  reform  and  the  parol  gave  the  outlaws  addi- 
tional chances  for  crime.  In  an  effort  to  arouse  the  readers  of  this 
book  to  a  realization  of  the  activity  of  the  criminal  population  the 
following  list  of  convictions  is  printed.  The  list  includes  only  a 
very  few  of  the  hundreds  of  convictions ;  only  those  which,  by 
reason  of  their  novelty  or  heinousness,  or  the  importance  of  the 
criminal  or  his  victim,  attracted  exceptional  public  attention.  No 
one  mentioned  elsewhere  in  the  book  is  included  here.  Though 
twenty-four  cases  are  given,  the  list  does  not  go  back  even  to  the 
beginning  of  Hoyne's  administration : 

WILLIAM  F.  STINE— conspiracy:  Ex-police  officer.  Head  of 
police  organization.  Embezzled  portion  of  $66,000  secret  police 
slush  fund.  E.  J.  Dodd,  president  of  association  and  involved  in  same 
charges,  was  not  indicted  because  of  statute  of  limitations. 

"EDDIE"  HICKS— confidence  game:  Notorious  "con"  man 
and  king  of  shell  game  artists.  Inveigled  victims  by  claiming  author- 
ity and  ability  to  sell  submarines  to  Canada. 

HENRY  BARRETT  and  EDWARD  BARRETT— manslaugh- 
ter: The  famous  -Barrett  brothers,  notorious  sluggers,  who  killed 
a  pal,  Henry  Masterson,  in  a  quarrel  about  a  woman. 

JAMES  C.  FRANCHE — murder:     Notorious  criminal  known  as 

Forty-one 


"Duffy  the  Goat."  Convicted  of  killing  Isaac  Henagow  at  a  noto- 
rious redlight  hangout.  Police  attempted  to  cover  up  crime,  but 
Hoyne  uncovered  the  plot  and  secured  the  evidence  upon  which 
the  conviction  was  obtained.  Jury  fixed  punishment  at  death.  New 
trial  granted. 

ROSWELL  C.  SMITH— murder:  Sentenced  to  death  for  mur- 
der of  a  four-year-old  girl.  Hanged  February,  1914. 

EDWARD  A.  JONES — conspiracy:  An  attorney,  convicted  for 
"fixing"  witnesses  and  sending  them  out  of  the  state. 

ADOLPH  J.  SCHMIDT— forgery :  An  employee  of  the  Stock 
Yards  State  Bank,  who  passed  a  forged  check  on  the  Fort  Dearborn 
National  Bank  for  $7,500  and  fled  to  England.  Brought  back  from 
Bristol,  England.  • 

IKE  BOND — murder:  Given  life  sentence  for  murder  of  Ida 
Leegson,  Art  Institute  sculpturess. 

SEYMOUR  R.  SIMPSON— conspiracy:  Deputy  sealer  of  the 
city  of  Chicago,  convicted  for  "shaking  down"  peddlars  while  work- 
ing for  the  city. 

RUSSELL  THOMPSON— larceny:  Notorious  burglar  and 
associate  of  the  equally  notorious  Melville  Reeves. 

MICHAEL  and  NATHAN  HOCKMAN— conspiracy :  Con- 
victed of  forging  Sperry-Hntchinson  green  trading  stamps  and 
defrauding  merchants  who  purchased  them. 

JAMES  CONWAY  and  LILLIAN  CON  WAY— murder :  Fa- 
mous circus  clown  and  actor,  convicted  with  wife  of  killing  well 
known  girl  from  Baltimore  in  a  boarding  house  on  Indiana'  Avenue. 

WILLIAM  CHENEY  ELLIS— murder :  Prominent  Cincinnati 
merchant.  Murdered  his  wife  in  the  Hotel  Sherman  by  strangula- 
tion and  cutting  her  throat. 

RUSSELL  PETHICK — murder:  Grocery  clerk  and  wagon 
driver,  who  killed  Mrs.  Coppersmith  and  child. 

JACK  KOETTERS— murder :  Known  as  "Handsome  '  Jack" 
and  "Hammer  man."  Convicted  of  killing- the  aged  Emma  Kraft  in 
Saratoga  Hotel.  Eluded  police  for  many  years.  Finally  caught  in 
San  Francisco. 

VINCENZO  CIOLLARA — manslaughter:  Son  of  a  judge  in  a 
high  court  in  Italy.  Man  of  mystery.  Refused  to  talk  from  the 
time  of  arrest  until  sentenced  for  life  to  the  penitentiary. 

PAUL  BRENCATO— murder:  Completely  severed  head  of 
Joseph  Minella,  his  associate  and  colleague. 

STANLEY  STACK  and  SAMUEL  MALRICK— murder  and 
robbery:  Robbed  and  killed  banker  J.  J.  Slomski.  Sentenced  to 
i  penitentiary  for  life. 

Forty-two 


1.  "Big  Jack"  Strosnider,  head  of  the  wiretappers"  trust.  Most  ingenious 
of  all  swindlers  and  jail  evaders,  he  is  now  in  Joliet  after  twenty  years 
of  criminal  liberty.  He  once  tricked  President  McKinley  into  pardoning 
him.  2.  Edward  Jackson,  known  everywhere  as  "Eddie  the  Immune,"  be- 
cause no  one  could  send  him  to  prison.  Convicted  head  of  the  pickpocket 
trust.  3.  "Handsome  Jack"  Koetter.  To  get  her  money,  induced  elderly 
Emma  Kraft  to  elope  with  him  and  then  beat  out  her  brains  with  a  ham- 
mer. 4.  Bennie  Fein,  one  of  the  Washington  Park  State  Bank  robbers. 
Though  only  twenty-three  years  old  Bennie  had  already  been  arrested 
fourteen  times.  5  and  6.  "Big  Polly"  and  Harry  Kramer,  of  the  Washing- 
ton Park  gan:r. 


Forty-three 


CHAPTER   XI 
Parasite  Trust 

Discussing  the  Hyenas  of  Crime  and  Their  Dispersal 

NO  CLASS  of  criminal  incites  more  contempt  than  the  paras.:e. 
One  may  look  with  some  respect  upon  the  burglar  or  the  gun 
man,  for  their  vocation  calls  for  courage.  But  the  parasite 
preys  upon  the  helpless.  They  may  be  classed  in  general  as  jury  fixers, 
crooked  lawyers  and  leaches  who  fasten  themselves  upon  the  mentally 
unfit. 

The  criminal  court  building  in  Chicago  at  one  time  blossomed  like 
a  rose  garden  with  these  despicable  crooks — if  roses  and  so  ill-favored 
a  blossom  can  have  any  ground  of  similitude.  It  is  pleasant  to  report, 
however,  that  the  parasites  have  found  hard  living  in  the  last  several 
years  and  have  now  largely  lost  their  organization  and,  for  the  time 
being  at  least,  their  power  for  evil. 

When  Hoyne  assumed  office  he  found  a  body  of  professional  fixers, 
whose  stock  in  trade  consisted  principally  of  the  credulity  of  their 
victims.  Close  watch  was  kept  by  the  fixers  on  the  grand  jury  com- 
mitments in  the  criminal  branches  of  the  municipal  court  and  they 
wasted  as  little  time  in  reaching  the  intended  victims  as  the  ambulance 
chasing  shyster  in  personal  injury  cases.  For  a  stated  sum,  paid  in 
advance,  the  professional  fixer  would  pretend  to  fix  the  state's  attor- 
ney so  that  no  indictment  should  result.  If  the  evidence  presented  to 
the  grand  jury  was  insufficient  to  warrant  an  indictment,  the  fixer 
reported  his  success  to  his  victim.  If  the  indictment  was  returned, 
the  victim  was  assured  that  the  fixing  would  be  done  at  the  trial.  If  a 
conviction  resulted  the  fixer  sometimes,  but  not  often,  returned  the 
dupe's  money. 

There  also  existed  a  smaller,  yet  more  dangerous,  class  of  fixers 
known  as  jury-bribers.  Their  object  was  to  free,  for  compensation, 
desperate  criminals  whose  guilt  was  known.  "Slicky"  McMahon, 
"Bob"  Malone  and  Attorney  Lewis  E.  Dickinson,  in  the  second  year 
of  Hoyne's  administration,  were  indicted  as  jury-bribers,  tried  and 
sentenced  to  the  penitentiary. 

These  men  both  bribed  jurors  and  furnished  evidence  on  contract. 
Upon  an  indictment  being  rendered  the  leaders  of  the  gang  would 
wait  upon  the  man  about  to  be  tried  and  offer  to  supply  him  with 
witnesses  and  evidence  for  the  defense.  For  a  case  where  jurors  were 
to  be  bribed  and  affidavits  and  other  evidence  furnished  a  charge  of 
about  $500  would  be  made.  The  more  serious  the  offense  charged,  of 
course,  the  higher  the  fee.  The  jury  bribers  convicted  at  one  time 
included  in  their  gang  the  clerk  of  one  of  the  courts.  The  acquittal  of 
several  murderers  is  charged  to  them. 

Forty-four 


Since  the  conviction  of  the  leaders  in  this  form  of  crime,  however, 
the  small  fry  have  realized  that  a  new  order  of  things  exists  in  the 
criminal  court  building  and  have  sought  other  fields  for  their  talent. 

Jury  bribing  has  now  been  rendered  doubly  difficult  by  the 
inauguration  of  a  system  that  weeds  out  all  men  from  the  venire  who 
might  be  regarded  as  in  co-operation  with  the  criminals  or  susceptible 
to  bribery.  A  staff  of  investigators  is  always  at  work,  often  aided  by 
private  detective  agencies.  The  people  of  Chicago  and  Cook  County 
are  today  assured  of  more  reliable  juries  than  ever  before. 

A  startling  trade  at  one  time  existed  in  the  property  of  the  mentally 
unsound.  It  found  its  headquarters  in  the  county  and  probate  courts. 
By  inquiry  it  was  possible  to  learn  the  financial  condition  of  those 
who  were  committed  to  the  hospital  for  the  insane.  Many  of  these 
were  without  relatives  or  interested  friends  and  in  such  a  case  these 
unscrupulous  leaches  promptly  filed  a  petition  in  the  probate  court 
and  secured  their  own  appointment  as  conservator,  empowering  them 
to  take  charge  of  the  property  of  the  unfortunate.  The  results  of  this 
practice  can  readily  be  imagined ;  often  the  savings  of  a  lifetime  were 
dissipated  or  legally  involved  in  such  a  manner  that  the  owner  was 
deprived  of  their  use. 

The  state's  attorney's  office  has  now,  however,  brought  about  co- 
operation between  the  two  courts,  and  an  assistant  state's  attorney 
has  been  assigned  to  attend  all  hearings.  This  arrangement  leads  to 
the  appointment  of  a  proper  conservator  and  makes  available  expert 
advice  as  to  the  management  of  the  estate.  The  importance  of  this 
reform  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1913  only  2,510  persons  were 
passed  upon  as  to  their  sanity  while,  if  the  present  rate  is  maintained 
throughout  the  year,  more  than  3,500  insanity'  petitions  will  have 
been  heard  in  1916.  This  is  an  increase  of  more  than  thirty  per  cent. 
Yearly  the  machinery  for  handling  the  insane  is  becomming  of  more 
importance  to  the  public. 

Another  phase  of  parasitical  activity  was  much  less  criminal,  but 
at  the  same  time  had  a  decidedly  demoralizing  effect.  This  was  the 
practice  of  favored  attorneys.  If  certain  lawyers  have  special 
privileges  in  the  state's  attorney's  jurisdiction  it  gives  them  a  powerful 
advantage  over  other  lawyers  not  having  such  privileges,  and  thus 
disturbs  the  natural  and  equitable  distribution  of  professional  business. 
This  form  of  abuse  in  the  last  few  years  had  become  notorious. 

As  the  general  body  of  legal  practitioners  in  Chicago  and  the 
county  towns  was  the  first  to  suffer  from  the  existence  of  this  form  of 
special  privilege,  so  the  lawyers  have  been  the  first  to  note  its  dis- 
appearance and  to  thank  the  present  state's  attorney  therefor.  The 
public  can  depend  upon  it  that  under  the  present  administration  there 
is  no  necessity  of  hiring  this  or  that  lawyer  because  he  is  known  'to 
have  the  ear  of  the  prosecuting  official  and  his  assistants.  As  a  sign  of 
it*  approbation  the  bar  association  has  always  strongly  endorsed 
lloyne. 

Forty-five 


CHAPTER  XII 
Moron,  Juvenile  and  Sex  Criminal 

In    Which    Widely    Differing   Views    are    Expressed    as    to    the    Moron,    and 
Improvement  is  Noted  in  the   Handling  of  Juvenile   and   Sex   Cases 

{{TF  THE  POLICE  were  given  authority  to  arrest  every  queer 
appearing  person  who  looked  like  a  moron,  do  you  think  you 
would  be  safe?" 

This  question  was  fired  at  me  the  other  morning  in  the  criminal 
court  building.  Two  authorities  were  at  it  hot  and  heavy  on 
the  problem  of  the  half-wit  criminal  and  what  should  be  done  with 
him.  Neither  of  the  authorities  had  an  idea  in  common.  Their  atti- 
tude, in  fact,  represented  the  attitude  of  the  general  public  and  their 
difference  showed  the  difficulty  of  reaching  any  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem. It  is  one  thing  to  talk  of  the  poor  "defective"  and  how  he  should 
be  placed  in  a  non-penal  institution,  instead  of  punished,  and  quite 
another  thing  to  ascertain  whether  he  is  really  defective,  and  if  so,  to 
adjust  the  administration  of  justice  to  the  thousand  and  one  new 
obstacles  which  such  a  plan  encounters. 

"What  we  need,"  said  one  of  my  disputants,  a  judge  on  the  criminal 
bench,  "is  educated  policemen.  We  need  scientific  policemen  who  can 
detect  queer  persons  when  they  are  seen  and  take  them  to  a  central 
clinic,  which  should  be  established  in  conjunction  with  the  police 
department,  the  municipal  court  and  the  county  court.  The  chief  of 
police  is  willing  to  help,  t>ut  he  does  not  wish  to  take  the  entire 
responsibility  of  arresting  people  and  depriving  them  of  their  liberty 
because  they  look  queer." 

"Go  on !"  exclaimed  his  opponent,  one  of  our  well-known  alienists ; 
"a  man  has  a  constitutional  right  to  look  queer.  Besides,  if  the  police 
were  given  power  to  pick  up  any  one  looking  like  a  moron,  half-wit  or 
other  unfortunate,  some  of  our  most  noted  physicians,  surgeons,  bank- 
ers, brokers,  editors — in  fact,  half  the  population  would  have  to  flee  the 
country  for  safety.  Point  out  some  sane  man  on  the  street  and 
whisper  to  a  friend  that  he  is  on  the  border  line,  and  in  two  days  the 
gossips  will  have  him  in  the  mad  house  or  branded  as  a  dangerous 
citizen." 

"My  dear  doctor,"  said  the  first,  "you  are  all  wrong.  The  efforts 
put  forth  to  find  the  right  solution  to  the  feeble-minded  question  are 
the  most  humanitarian  I  have  ever  known.  They  are  conceived  in 
sympathy." 

To  which  the  other  replied: 

"It  is  the  most  remarkable  coincidence  that  this  whole  scheme  is 
favored,  encouraged,  fostered  and  developed  by  two  extremes  in 
society — on  the  one  hand  by  those  well  meaning  and  eminently 

Forty-six 


respectable  social  workers,  psychologists  and  alienists  who  honestly 
believe  they  have  discovered  a  great  science  for  the  benefit  of  society, 
and  on  the  other  hand  by  the  thieves,  thugs,  grafters,  crooks,  con- 
fidence men,  robbers  and  murderers,  who,  in  the  last  two  years,  have 
profited  by  the  system,  and  whose  agents  have  disguised  their  vicious 
purpose  and  with  subtle  ingenuity  have  crept  into  the  conferences  for 
civic  reform  and  helped  the  thing  along.  The  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  the  stench  from  this  scheme,  with  its  protection  for  crooks, 
excuses  for  crime,  disrespect  for  laws,  demoralization  of  justice,  and 
breeding  of  criminals,  will  smell  to  Heaven,  and  merit  an  investigation 
and  prosecution." 

The  attitude  of  certain  well-meaning  people  and  organizations 
toward  the  criminal  because  of  his  supposed  mental  defectiveness,  has 
raised  many  new  problems,  not  only  in  the  work  of  securing  convic- 
tions of  criminals,  but  in  dealing  with  the  criminal  otherwise. 

Within  the  last  two  years,  since  the  establishment  of  the  boys' 
court,  commissions  have  been  appointed  by  courts  and  societies  to 
study  the  relation  of  so-called  mental  defectiveness  to  crime,  and 
devise  plans  for  the  segregation  of  the  feeble-minded.  Whenever  any 
sensational  murder  like  that  of  Ella  Coppersmith,  Agnes  Middleton  or 
Henry  Mclntyre  is  committed,  a  new  agitation  is  started  with  columns 
in  the  newspapers  on  the  "irresponsible"  criminal.  Notice  is  served  on 
all  criminals  that  there  is  a  new  excuse  for  murder.  Nothing  is  said 
about  punishment.  All  one  hears  is  "He  was  a  defective ;  we  must  do 
something  with  these  defectives." 

Doctor  Krohn,  a  recognized  authority  on  the  subject  of  diseased 
minds  and  crime,  put  the  commission  to  thinking  when  he  said,  "The 
first  step  towards  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws.  Too  many  men  and  boys,  arrested  for  crimes  which  they  deliber- 
ately planned,  are  excused  on  the  plea  of  'something  wrong  in  the 
head.'  Always  excusing  crime  makes  a  pathological  pensonality  of  a 
boy  who,  at  the  outset  of  his  criminal  career,  was  normal  in  every 
mental  attribute,  and  would  have  remained  normal  but  for  these  excus- 
ing agencies." 

One  of  the  commissions  appointed  by  the  county  court,  outlines 
two  courses  of  action :  "Ask  the  legislature  to  provide  farm  colonies 
for  feeble-minded  and  half-wits  of  Chicago,  near  Chicago,  and  set 
aside  a  large  appropriation  annually  in  Chicago — not  less  than  $1,000.- 
000 — with  which  to  make  a  scientific  survey  of  the  situation  on  the 
part  of  both,  the  police  and  the  health  authorities.  The  machinery  of 
the  county  court  is  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  police  who  are  urged 
to  round  up  all  paranoiacs,  morons  and  half-wits,  and  bring  them 
before  the  court." 

The  official  most  concerned  with  the  new  problem  is  the  public 
prosecutor.  It  is  easy  for  a  judge  or  a  jury  out  of  sympathy,  senti- 
ment or  error,  to  turn  a  criminal  loose,  but  the  prosecutor  charged 

Fortv-seven 


specially  with  the  duty  of  protecting .  society,  feels  constantly  the 
responsibility  of  seeing  that  the  criminal, 'chiefly  for.  the,, deterrent 
effect  it  will  ha-ve  upon  others,  should  be  punished.  He  is  sometimes 
blamed  in  a  certain  case  for  not  .securing  a  conviction.  If  his  failure 
to  convict  is+due  to  a  new  agency  for  excusing  the  criminal,  he  of  all 
persons,  is  most  interested  in  ascertaining  whether  or  not  that  agency 
is  one  for  the  good  of  society. 

In  dealing  with  criminals  for  thousands  of  years  the  different 
governments  of  the  world  have  proceeded  upon  the  theory  that  the; 
chief  object  of  punishing  is  to  deter  others,  but  the  new  conception 
seems  to  be  that  if  we  punish  at  all' it  is  only  for  .the  purpose  , of 
reforming.  With  many  of  our  courts  taking  a  sentimental  attitude 
toward  the  criminal,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  criminal  himself,  after 
being  given  the  benefit  of  leniency,  becomes  encouraged  to  commit- 
other  crimes,  and  those  who  see  and  hear  what  goes  on  in  the  court 
room  are  also  encouraged.  It  is  easy,  also,  to  see  how  both  the 
criminal  and  the  would-be  criminal  lose  respect  for  the  law,  and 
naturally  drift  toward  criminal  life. 

The  'plan  for  dealing  with  half-wits,  in  the  opinion  of  State's  Attor- 
ney Hoyne,  must  depend,  in  large  measure,  on  the  conclusions  the  law 
makers  reach  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  methods  to  determine  who-: 
are  half-wits  and  the  number  that  will  have  to  be  dealt  with.  -If  the 
old  law  on  responsibility  for  crime  continues  to  be  the  law- — that  is", 
if  the  criminal  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  his  acts  so  long  as  he  knows 
the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong — there  will  be  little  need  for 
any  farm  colonies.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  psycopathic  laboratory— 
moron  idea — is  to  prevail  and  become  the  law,  we  may  prepare  for  the 
seggregation  of  a  large  part  of  our  population  who  are  now  law  abiding 
citizens,  and  establish  enough  institutions  or  farm  colonies  to  accom- 
modate them.  — 

Those  who  advocate  this  new  reform,  must  prove  first  that  Chicago 
is  "swarming  with  half-wits";  second,  that  the  half-wits  are  dangerous 
and  should  be  seggregated  from  the.  rest  of  society;  third,  that  the 
methods  now  efriployed -to  determine  half-wittidness  are  correct.-  Until 
this  is  proved  the  penitentiary,  the  insane  asylum  and  the  institution 
at  Lincoln,  with  additions  to  meet  a  natural  growing  demand,  are,  in 
his  opinion,  sufficient. 

*         *         * 

Many  readers  of  this  booklet  will  be  astonished  to  learn  that  in  the 
last  four  years  the  juvenile  court  has  tried  "and  disposed  of  9,429 
delinquent  cases  and  9,350  dependent  cases.  Such  a  volume  of  wrong 
doing  and  misfortune  among  the  young  condemns  the  parents  of 
Chicago.  If  the  homes  of  the  city  produce  nearly  5,000  cases  a  year 
that  get  into  court,  how  many  thousand  other  cases  are  there  of  which 
we  hear  nothing? 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  report  that  the  work  of  this  specialized  court  is 
improving.  In  1913  the  cases  tried  resulted  in  only  9%0  per  cent  of 

Forty-eight 


convictions.  In  1916,  of  the  last  124  cases  presented  to  the  grand  jury, 
seventeen  were  no-billed,  103  true-billed,  sixty-seven  tried  and  in  forty- 
eight  cases  a  conviction  was  had,  making  a  total  of  convictions  of 
seventy-one  per  cent. 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne  is  responsible  for  tins  improvement.  Soon 
after  coming  into  office  he  discovered  that  the  staff  of  fifty-three  police 
officers  and  eighty-one  county  probation  officers  was  handling  all  these 
cases  without  any  attorney  to  direct  them.  There  was  no  definite  plan 
of  action  from  a  legal  standpoint.  He  put  one  of  his  assistants  in 
charge  of  all  juvenile  work ;  arranged  to  have  all  cases  where  a  juvenile 
was  complaining  witness  brought  in  the  court  of  domestic  relations, 
making  it  possible  for  one  officer  to  do  the  work  more  systematically 
than  four  or  five  were  then  doing  it;  and  put  into  the  hands  of  another 
officer,  for  specialized  effort,  all  cases  that  were  held  to  the  grand  jury. 
Hoyne's  object  in  these  innovations  was  to  permit  a  thorough  investiga- 
tion of  each  and  every  case  prosecuted  in  that  court,  realizing  that 
without  a  systematic  investigation  by  proper  officers  under  a  proper 
head  an  unfortunate  child  might  later  become  a  hardened  criminal. 

The  juvenile  court  now  has  about  125  officers  assigned  to  districts. 
Their  work  is  to  make  investigation  of  homes.  In  many  cases  young 
girls  are  found  in  houses  of  ill-fame  or  surrounded  at  home  by  evil 
conditions.  These  are  brought  to  the  court  and  a  new  home  found  for 
them  or  they  are  placed  in  a  school.  A  child-placing  depaitment  finds 
work  for  girls  and  an  officer  keeps  in  close  touch  with  ea.  h  case  so 
placed.  The  same  system  is  followed  with  boys,  except  that  they  are 
placed  on  farms  through  the  state.  The  widows'  pension  now  cares 

for  all  children  where  the  father  is  dead  or  unable  to  work. 

*         *         * 

It  is  shocking  to  relate  that  not  a  month  goes  by  in  Chicago  without 
the  grand  jury  being  called  upon  to  dispose  of-  at  least  fifty-six  sex 
cases  in  which  the  witnesses  are  young  children.  In  this  peculiarly 
difficult  work  Hoyne  has  wrought  many  improvements.  In  March, 
1915,  he  established  a  social  service  department  to  handle  all  sex 
cases.  It  is  in  charge  of  Miss  Laura  Ebel,  and  Miss  Frances  Douglass 
manages  the  field  work.  Girls  are  no  longer,  as  heretofore,  compelled 
to  relate  their  sex  experiences  to  a  man,  usually  an  assistant  state's 
attorney,  a  most  unsatisfactory  arrangement.  One  of  the  women  in 
charge  always  appears  in  court  with  the  child.  The  investigations  are 
very  broad  and  thorough.  They  are  made  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
fairness  to  the  defendant  as  well  as  the  prosecution.  Many  injustices 
have  been  avoided  through  these  investigations  and  by  a  proper 
presentation  of  the  evidence. 

Every  effort  is  made  toward  a  speedy  trial. .  Young  children  tend 
to  forget  such  experiences  and  the  idea  is  to  allow  them  to  go,  forget 
as  soon  as  possible.  A  comfortable  rest  room  has  been  provided  and 
children  who  are  to  appear  as  witnesses  are  kept  here  until  called. 
Formerly  they  were  compelled  to  sit  in  court  and  listen  to  evidence 

Forty-nine 


which  at  times  was  shockiug  even  to  the  most  depraved.  Where  the 
investigation  shows  that  a  conviction  could  not  be  secured  the  child 
is  not  taken  into  court  at  all.  That  the  children  may  not  come  in 
contact  with  the  general  run  of  witnesses  in  the  criminal  court  build- 
ing, a  special  day  has  been  set  aside  and  designated  as  "Grand  Jury 
Children's  Day." 


CHAPTER  XIII 
Unspectacular  Crime 

In  Which  Improvement  is  Noted  in  the  Punishment  of 
Quasi-Criminal  Offenders 

THE  AVERAGE  citizen  has  no  idea  as  to  the  enormous  amount 
of  crime  of  the  unspectacular  sort.  Violent  crime  attracts  the 
attention  because  it  is  featured  in  the  daily  papers.  But  there 
are  thousands  upon  thousands  of  cases  that  are  never  mentioned  but 
which  strike  close  to  the  homes  of  the  people. 

Perhaps  the  most  spectacular  of  the  unspectacular  cases  in  recent 
years  was  the  failure  of  the  La  Salle  Street  Trust  &  Savings  Bank  and 
its  subsidiaries.  This  case  received  very  great  notoriety  because  of  the 
political  prominence  of  the  men  involved.  Otherwise  it  would  have 
aroused  only  a  fleeting  interest  outside  the  circle  of  depositors. 

The  La  Salle  Street  Trust  &  Savings  failure  was  one  of  the  most 
serious  in  modern  banking  history.  The  total  losses  were  in  the 
neighborhood  of  four  million  dollars.  The  victims  were  among  the 
people  of  average  means,  and  were  over  20,000  in  number.  Many 
working  people  lost  their  entire  savings  of  a  lifetime,  and  numbers  of 
widows,  heirs  and  legatees  had  their  entire  estates  swept  away. 

As  a  result  of  the  crash  C.  B.  Munday,  vice-president  of  the  bank, 
was  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary.  William  Lorimer  was  acquitted 
by  a  jury.  There  is,  as<a  rule,  little  public  interest  in  these  unspectacular 
cases,  and  so  many  political  and  other  influences  are  brought  to  bear  that 
there  are  great  chances  of  a  failure  of  justice.  The  people  should  make 
a  point  of  following  these  prosecutions. 

In  commenting  on  the  La  Salle  Street  trials  the  Chicago  Tribune 
of  October  27,  1914,  said : 

"State's  Attorney  Hoyne  has  taken  up  an  unprofitable  and  thank- 
less work  in  the  prosecution  of  the  bank  looters.  Unprofitable  because 
among  those  indicted  are  men  of  considerable  political  following, 
which  following  may  count  at  the  polls  upon  some  future  day.  Thank- 
less because  it  is  seldom  that  a  public  prosecutor  obtains  any  public 
acclaim  for  prosecution  of  crimes  other  than  crimes  of  violence. 

"The  conviction  of  Munday  should  serve  as  a  solemn  admonition 
that  a  man  with  hundreds  of  thousands  or  millions  cannot  go  out  and 

Fifty 


rob  the  poor,  the  widows,  the  orphans  or  ihe  dead,  and  go  free,  while 
the  bank  clerk  who  steals  $100,  or  the  wild  youth  who  becomes  the 
same  kind  of  a  criminal  by  taking  $5  belonging  to  some  one  else  goes 
to  the  penitenitary  as  a  crook." 

Notwithstanding  the  lack  of  public  interest,  good  results  are  being 
secured  in  the  punishment  of  unspectacular  criminals.  There  were 
tried,  between  April  1,  1915,  and  September  1,  1916,  for  instance,  451 
misdemeanor  cases  in  the  municipal  court,  including  such  counts  as 
contributing  to  delinquency,  contributing  to  dependency,  bastardy  and 
seduction.  Of  this  number  only  forty-two  were  discharged.  No  records 
were  kept  prior  to  this  period,  but  such  figures  as  are  available  show  that 
before  the  last  three  years  convictions  did  not  run  above  forty  per  cent. 
This  fact  is  satisfying,  for  it  shows  that  these  offenders  are  much  more 
likely  to  pay  for  their  misdemeanors  than  formerly. 

The  better  results  being  obtained  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  quasi- 
criminal  calendar — which  includes  assault  and  battery  cases  and  all 
liquor  cases  brought  in  from  the  country  towns — is  now  being  kept 
clear.  Three  years  ago  an  assistant  state's  attorney  was  assigned  for 
the  first  time  exclusively  to  this  work. 

It  had  been  the  custom  in  the  state's  attorney's  office  and  the 
criminal  court  to  allow  several  hundred  of  these  cases  to  accumulate 
and  then  place  them  on  a  quasi-criminal  calendar  before  some  judge  in 
the  criminal  court.  Cases  held  over  from  a  justice  of  the  peace  were 
in  some  instances  placed  on  a  quasi-criminal  calendar  as  long  as  six 
months  thereafter.  In  some  bastardy  cases  there  were  delays  of  from 
two  to  three  years  from  the  date  of  the  birth  of  the  child.  The  result 
was  that  in  most  of  the  cases  the  prosecuting  witnesses  failed  to  appear 
and  in  a  number  of  cases  neither  the  prosecuting  witnesses  nor  the 
defendants  appeared,  necessitating  a  forfeiture  of  the  bond  and  an 
additional  expense  to  the  county  in  the  collection  thereof. 

Now,  however,  the  cases  are  put  on  the  call  as  soon  as  they  are 
held  over  and  the  witnesses  are  always  present. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
Maclay  Hoyne 

In  Which  a  Tribute  is  Paid  (to  a  Good  American  and  a 
Good  Public  Official 

THE   thing  that  strikes   me   first  when  I   come  into   the  presence 
of  this  man  Hoyne  is  what  I  would  call  his  representativeness. 
He  is,  from  every  point  of  view,  an  American.      Into  his  making 
have    gone    the    blood    and    the    ideals    of    the    Celt    and    the    Anglo- 
Saxon,   of   the    Protestant   and   the   Catholic,    of  our   own   North   and 
South,  and  East  and  West.     The  history  of  his  family  has  been,  in 
large  part,  the  history  of  the  nation  and  of  the  city  of  Chicago.     Such 

Fifty-one 


a  man,  it  would  seem  to  me  should  be — in  so  far  as  is  humanly  pos- 
sible— above  the  prejudices  of  race,  religion,  section,  faction  and  party. 
He  should  be  peculiarly  well  fitted  to  withstand  those  trials  and  tempta- 
tions which  the  holding  of  public  office  entails  in  a  republic  as  nowhere 
else  on  earth.  He  should  be,  in  person  and  performance,  an  expres- 
sion of  the  best  that  the  race  is  developing. 

In  explaining  this  representativeness  of  Hoyne  I  shall  go  back  to 
the  great-grandfathers  of  the  present  state's  attorney.  Great-gram  „- 
fathers  count  for  less  in  America  than  anywhere  else.  But  they  do 
bestow  upon  their  progeny  a  sort  of  cumulating  point  of  view.  Who 
can  say,  for  instance,  but  that  it  was  the  great-gandfathers  who  laid 
it  upon  Maclay  Hoyne  to  renounce  some  $700,000  in  fees — other  state's 
attorneys  have  always  taken  them — and  to  get  a  bill  through  the  leg- 
islature limiting  all  future  public  prosecutors  to  a  $10,000  salary. 

Three  of  the  Hoyne  great-grandfathers  are  of  interest  to  Chicago. 
The  first  of  these  is  Thomas  Hoyne,  who,  with  his  wife,  fled  the  tyranny 
of  British  government  in  Ireland  in  1815  and  landed  penniless  in  New 
York  to  start  life  afresh.  The  second  is  the  Rev.  Archibald  Maclay, 
a  Baptist  minister  then  stationed  in  New  York.  The  third  is  Dr.  John 
Temple  of  Virginia. 

The  plot  began  when  Great-grandfather  Hoyne  and  his  wife  died 
within  a  year  of  each  other  and  left  an  eight-year  son,  Thomas  Hoyne. 
Little  Tom,  naturally,  had  up  to  that  time  been  an  attendant  at  the 
parish  school.  But  the  law  appointed  as  his  guardian  the  Protestant 
Dr.  Maclay. 

While  Tom  was  growing  up  in  the  Maclay  home,  Dr.  Temple,  the 
third  great-grandfather,  moved  from  Virginia  to  Chicago,  bringing 
his  daughter  Leonora.  This  was  in  1833.  Dr.  Temple,  according  to 
the  Chicago  Manual  prepared  by  City  Statistician  Francis  A.  Eastman 
— all  these  facts  I  take  from  historical  records — was  one  of  the  thir- 
teen original  incorporators  of  the  village  of  Chicago.  He  started  the 
first  stagecoach  line  to  connect  Chicago  with  the  settlements  on  the 
Illinois,  and  built  the  house  of  worship  occupied  jointly  by  the  original 
congregations  of  the  First  Baptist  and  First  Presbyterian  churches. 
His  daughter  was  one  of  the  first  women  baptized  in  Chicago,  being 
immersed  in  the  lake. 

Four  years  after  the  arrival  of  the  Temples  in  Chicago  Tom  Hoyne 
was  moved  to  pack  up  his  belongings  and  come  to  this  western  village. 
One  year  after  his  arrival  he  married  Miss  Leonora  Temple  and,  in 
1840,  became  the  first  city  clerk  of  Chicago  under  the  municipal  organi- 
zation. It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  salary  of  the  office  was  then 
$250  per  annum,  with  some  trifling  fees  for  licenses.  But  the  work 
was  very  light — occuping  only  three  or  four  hours  in  a  week — all  the 
records  of  the  city,  including  proceedings  of  the  board  of  aldermen 
and  tax  rolls,  with  the  public  documents,  being  contained  in  one  small 
office  desk.  It  is  a  fact,  perhaps  worthy  of  remembrance  in  a  city 
which  now  collects  a  general  revenue  tax  of  millions  annually,  that 

Fifty-two 


the  whole  amount  of  the  tax  list  of  Chicago  in   1840  was  onry 
$7,000. 

From  this  small  beginning  Tom  Hoyne  became  the  "fighting  Tom 
Hoyne"  of  Chicago  history,  the  Democratic  mayor  who  saved  to  the 
people  such  rights  as  they  now  enjoy  on  the  lake  front.  He  founded 
Northwestern  University  School  of  Law  and  the  chair  in  astronomy 
in  the  old  Chicago  university,  and  was  one  of  the  big  men  of  his  day. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  as  United  States  district  attorney  for  the 
district  of  Illinois — he  was  afterwards  also  United  States  marshal — he 
won  his  first  case  from  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Tom  Hoyne  named  his  second  son  Thomas  Maclay  Hoyne.  This 
second  son,  as  soon  as  he  had  reached  manhood,  went  back  on  -a  visit 
to  the  Maclay  family  in  New  York  and  there  married  Miss  Jeannie 
Thomas  Maclay.  They  became  the  parents  of  the  present  Maclay 
Hoyne,  state's  attorney  of  Cook  County,  who  thus  inherited  the  Maclay 
from  both  sides  of  the  family.  As  befitted  the  teachings  of  old  Dr. 
Archibald,  they  were  both  good  Baptists  and  members  of  Immanuel 
congregation.  Maclay  Hoyne  attended  Immanuel  Sunday  School  and 
ended  by  marrying  Miss  Marie  Jacobs,  daughter  of  Benjamin  Jacobs, 
its  superintendent.  This  was  in  1897.  The  Hoynes  now  have  two 
children  and  live  at  5136  Blackstone  Avenue. 

The  state's  attorney,  in  the  fall  of  the  present  year,  will  be  forty- 
four  years  of  age.  He  is  a  member  of  the  University,  Iroquois  and 
South  Shore  clubs,  Delta  Upsilon  and  Phi  Delta  Phi  fraternities,  and 
the  Law  Club,  the  Legal  Club  and  the  Chicago  Law  institute.  He 
received  his  education  in  the  Chicago  pubic  schools,  Williams  College 
and  Northwestern  University  School  of  Law.  At,  college  he  was  a 
member  of  the  football  team,  playing  halfback  on  the  regular  eleven 
of  both  schools.  At  Williams  he  was  on  the  track  team,  and  for  some 
years  held  the  college  bicycle  record  for  one  mile.  He  added  to  the 
record  as  a  ball  player.  Always  active  and  interested  in  athletic  sports, 
gifted  alike  with  a  sound  mind  and  a  sound  body  throughout  his  life, 
Maclay  Hoyne,  both  on  the  athletic  field  and  in  the  courts  of  law,  has 
been  an  aggressive  and  fair  fighter,  and  a  man  hard  to  beat. 

Though  young,  Hoyne  already  has  a  long  record  of  public  service 
of  the  sort  that  Chicago  and  the  nation  need.  From  the  beginning 
he  showed  exceptional  legal  talent.  I  would  suggest  heredity  here 
again,  for  he  is  the  third  generation  of  lawyers  in  two  families. 

From  1903  to  1905  Hoyne  was  assistant  corporation  counsel  under 
Mayor  Harrison.  From  1905  to  1907  he  was  first  assistant  corporation 
counsel  under  Mayor  Dunne,  and  later  was  special  counsel  for  the 
city  of  Chicago  and  for  the  city  council  committee  on  gas,  oil,  electric 
light  and  telephone  matters  under  Mayor  Busse.  From  1911  until 
December,  1912,  when  he  became  state's  attorney,  he  was  first  assistant 
corporation  counsel  under  Mayor  Harrison. 

In  1906  he  drafted  the  present  Chicago  Telephone  Company  ordi- 
nance, which  reserves  to  the  city  the  right  to  regulate  telephone  rates 

Fifty-three 


every  five  years.  He  advised  and  conducted  che  litigation  resulting 
in  the  reduction  of  telephone  rates  from  $175  to  $125  a  year  for  busi- 
ness 'phones,  and  the  payment  by  the  telephone  company  to  the  city 
of  Chicago  of  about  the  sum  of  $300,000,  together  with  a  refund  to 
its  subscribers  of  past  excessive  charges  amounting  to  nearly  $600,000. 
The  aggregate  saving  to  telephone  subscribers  due  to  his  efforts  in 
these  proceedings  was  practically  a  million  dollars.  The  case  was 
appealed  to  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  and  finally  won  by  the 
state's  attorney. 

At  the  time  of  the  decision  in  this  case  in  1906  the  Chicago  Tribune 
said  editorially : 

"The  supreme  court  has  decided  against  the  telephone  company. 
It  holds  that  the  corporation  must  abide  by  the  ordinance,  and  can- 
not increase  rates  because  of  improvements  in  service.  It  also  holds 
that  territory  annexed  since  the  adoption  of  !he  ordinance  should  enjoy 
the  rates  presented  in  it.  The  toll  stations  in  that  territory  must  go. 
It  also  decides  that  the  company  has  been  a  common  extorter,  has 
violated  the  ordinances,  has  been  regardless  of  the  people's  rights,  and 
has  had  no  respect  for  its  contract  obligations.  It  has  been  found 
guilty  of  all  these  things. 

"Will  the  company  make  restitution  ?  Will  it  .pay  to  the  municipality 
what  it  owes  on  account  of  business  done  by  it  in  annexed  territory?" 

The  company  did  then  pay,  and  still  is  paying,  and  herein  is  proof 
enough  of  the  soundness  of  Hoyne's  opinion. 

Maclay  Hoyne  is  the  author  of  the  present  70-cent  gas  ordinance, 
and  conducted  the  litigation  for  the  city  of  Chicago  against  the  Peo- 
ple's Gas  Company,  which  resulted  in  the  immediate  reduction  of  gas 
rates  from  85  cents  to  80  cents,  an  annual  saving  to  gas  consumers  of 
a  million  dollars  a  year.  The  fight  which  he  then  started  for  68-cent 
gas  is  still  in  progress. 

While  first  assistant  corporation  counsel  under  Mayor  Harrison, 
as  counsel  for  the  Chicago  Harbor  and  Subway  Commission,  he 
became  the  author  of  the  ordinance  creating  several  harbor  districts. 
He  was  secretary  of  the  conference  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association 
and  State  Bar  Association  for  the  reform  of  pleadings  and  procedure, 
and  has  twice  served  as  a  member  of  grievance  committees  and  once 
on  the  Committee  on  Admissions  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association. 

The  high  opinion  in  which  he  is  held  by  the  legal  fraternity  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that,  while  a  Democratic  candidate,  he  has  on  two 
different  occasions  been  decisively  endorsed  by  the  Chicago  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, which  is  conceded  to  be  composed  of  not  less  than  a  three- 
fourths  Republican  membership. 

When  it  comes  to  his  work  as  state's  attorney  I  feel  that  I  can 
justly  say  that  never  before  in  the  history  of  this  office  in  Cook 
County  have  the  sterling  traits  of  honesty,  fearlessness  and  efficiency 
been  so  strikingly  exhibited.  He  has  elevated  the  state's  attorneyship 

Fifty-four 


Fifty-five 


to  a  dignity  and  importance  never  before  attained,  and  has  made  it 
truly  the  bulwark  of  the  people's  rights  and  liberties. 

He  possesses  in  a  high  degree  the  attribute  of  moral  courage,  so 
desirable  but  so  often  lacking  in  public  prosecutors.  He  has  demon- 
strated in  scores  of  prosecutions  that  he  is  fearless  in  the  pursuit  of 
big  criminals  and  the  unearthing  of  organized  crime,  and  he  has  been 
relentless  in  the  prosecution  of  its  perpetrators,  its  protectors  and  its 
more  remote  beneficiaries.  The  Hoyne  record,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
not  one  of  drastic,  harsh,  and  relentless  prosecutions.  No  public 
official  or  private  citizen,  minister,  priest  or  rabbi  ever  asked  leniency 
or  mercy  for  the  young,  ignorant,  poor  or  misguided  first  offender  in 
vain.  It  is  to  the  habitual  criminal  and  betrayers  of  public  trusts  alone 
that  a  deaf  ear  has  been  turned. 

The  vast  power  entrusted  to  the  state's  attorney  is  known  to  all. 
He  alone  is  vested  with  the  authority  to  institute  proceedings  involv- 
ing the  life  and  liberty  of  the  citizen.  While  the  abuse  of  this  power 
may  become  the  greatest  evil,  its  wise  and  orderly  use  against  the 
guilty  is  the  only  protection  furnished  by  society  to  the  innocent. 

That  this  power  has  been  wielded  impartially  and  fearlessly  by 
Hoyne  I  know  to  be  universally  admitted  by  those  who  have  access  to 
the  facts.  That  it  has  been  efficiently  and  wisely  exercised  is  proved 
by  the  number  and  character  of  convictions  secured  by  him  as  com- 
pared with  those  of  his  predecessors. 

He  is  a  believer  in  home  rule  and  does  not  think  that  the  state's 
attorney  should  use  his  office  to  hamper  the  executive  heads  of  the 
different  municipal  branches  of  the  county  government  in  the  honest 
performance  of  their  functions,  or  employ  his  power  to  force  the  indict- 
ment, upon  insufficient  grounds,  of  his  political  opponents.  In  the 
criminal  court,  as  in  the  corporation  counsel's  office,  I  know  his  efforts 
to  have  been  directed,  not  against  the  personal,  but  against  the  public 
enemy,  and  an  ambition  to  leave  behind  him  the  record  of  a  clean 
administration,  vigorously  conducted  and  successfully  concluded,  is  the 
highest  ideal  of  his  life. 

While  the  state's  attorney  has  always  been  a  good  and  active 
Democrat  he  does  not  go  to  that  degree  of  partizanship  that  unfits 
many  otherwise  acceptable  men  for  public  office.  I  remember  hearing 
him  say  one  day  last  winter : 

"I  regret  that  the  existing  election  laws  make  it  necessary  for 
candidates  for  state's  attorney  and  other  municipal  officers  to  seek  a 
partisan  nomination.  National  politics  and  policies,  and  politics  gen- 
erally, should  have  not  the  slightest  connection  with  the  office  of 
state's  attorney.  Since  my  election  in  1912  I  have  conducted  the 
state's  attorney's  office  on  this  theory." 

While  the  Hoyne  mind  is  essentially  a  legal  mind,  it  has  not  that 
machine-like  coldness  which  is  a  defect  of  many  brilliant  intellects  in 
the  professions.  The  state's  attorney  is  capable  of  a  very  warm  sym- 
pathy. This,  in  my  estimation,  he  showed  very  conclusively  in  July, 

Fifty-six 


1915,  when  the  strike  on  the  surface  and  elevated  railway  lines  had 
paralyzed  business  and  threatened  to  become  an  endurance  test 
between  the  car  men  and  the  companies.  Arbitration  was  proposed, 
and  the  strikers,  in  acknowledgement  of  the  fact  that  Hoyne  had 
always  proved  himself  a  sincere  and  effective  friend  of  labor  and 
honest  unionism,  asked  him  to  act  as  their  representative  on  the  arbi- 
tration board.  This  responsibility  he  accepted,  though  his  friends 
advised  him  that  the  chances  of  a  favorable  award  were  so  slight  that 
he  must  almost  surely  hurt  himself  politically  through  an  appearance 
of  indifference  and  inefficiency.  The  result  of  the  arbitration,  however, 
was  the  best  award  that  labor  has  ever  received  in  this  community. 

As  the  author  of  this  small  book  on  Chicago's  crime  trusts,  I  sum 
up  my  personal  tribute  to  Maclay  Hoyne  with  these  two  sentences : 

His  whole  record  shows  that  he  can  neither  be  cajoled,  coerced  nor 
intimidated  by  improper  influences,  political  or  otherwise. 

He  is  the  man  whom  all  criminals  should  fight  to  unseat  and  the 
man  all  honest  citizens  should  try  to  keep  in  power. 


Figures  Tell  Hoyne's  Success  as  State's  Attorney 

Convictions  for  Felonies 

Former  State's  Attorney  Healy — 3J4   years    1,458 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman— 3}4  years    1,039 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne — 3J4  years 1,917 

Convictions  for   Misdemeanors 

Former  States'  Attorney  Healy — 3J4  years    9,503 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman — 3%   years    17,988 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne — 3^4  years 40,048 

Total   Convictions   for  Felonies,   Misdemeanors    and   Bastardy   Cases 

Former  State's  Attorney  Healy — 3^4  years 11,135 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman — 3*4   years    19,255 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne— 3jk{  years 42,292 

Earnings 

Former  State's  Attorney  Healy— 3^4  years  $116,392.70 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman — 3}4  years  351,506.83 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne— 3^4  years 706,635.00* 


*In  connection  with  the  earnings  of  the  state's  attorney's  office,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  Hoyne  is  the  first  state's  attorney  to  pay  into  the  public  treasury 
the  fees  of  the  office,  and  that  he  secured  a  decision  in  the  supreme  court  prevent- 
ing all  future  state's  attorneys  from  retaining-  the  fees  of  the  office  in  addition 
to  the  $10,000  salary  provided  for  them  by  law. 

Convictions  of  Corrupt  Police  Officers 

Former  State's  Attorney  Healy — 3^4  years   None 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman — 3j4    years    1 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne — 3J4   years 5* 


*Six  others  awaiting  trial  or  forced  out  of  department. 
Organized  Crime  Trusts  Destroyed 

Former  State's  Attorney  Healy — 3 1/$  years  None 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman — 3^4  years   None 

Fifty-seven 


State's  Attorney  Hoyne — 3^4  years  9 

Convictions  of  Members  of  Organized  Criminal  Trusts 

Former  State's  Attorney  Healy — 3J4  years   None 

Former  State's  Attorney  Wayman — 3J4  years    None 

State's  Attorney  Hoyne — 3^4  years  64 


What  Others  Say  of  Maclay  Hoyne 

Prior  to  Hoyne's  administration  as  state's  attorney,  the  jail  was  always  in 
a  crowded  condition,  and  a  large  number  of  defendants  always  awaiting  trial 
on  pending  indictments.  Hoyne  has  relieved  this  congested  condition  by 
conducting  his  office  in  a  business-like  manner.  This  is  verified  by  a  report 
of  Jiulge  George  F.  Parrett,  acting-  chief  justice  of  the  criminal  court,  to  the 
judges  of  the  circuit  and  superior  courts  on  June  10,  1916: 

"The  number  of  prisoners  in  the  county  jail  awaiting  trial  is 
smaller  than  it  has  been  at  any  time  in  the  last  twenty-four  years. 
The  number  of  indictments  pending  is  smaller  than  at  any  time 
during  the  same  period." 

***** 

THE   CHICAGO   BAR  ASSOCIATION,   in  its   report  of  January   14,  1914: 

"The  general  com!uct  of  the  business  of  the  state's  attorney's 
office  by  Mr.  lioyne  is  business-like  and  efficient.  The  care  of 
details  and  the  checking  of  all  expenditures  shows  improvement 
over  the  system  in  vogue  in  former  years.  The  personnel  of  the 
assistants  in  the  office  is  good.  The  trial  staff  are  earnest,  hard- 
working lawye  s.  most  of  them  young  and  energetic  men,  who 
are  doing  -/^rv  good  work.  Several  are  working  nights  and  Sun- 
days, a-Hi  .Jiould  be  relieved  of  some  of  their  duties." 
***** 

ALFRED  L  iNRY  LEWIS,  famous  journalist  and  author: 

"Mr.clay  Hoyne  is  honest  in  his  very  essence,  iron  to  dis- 
charge a  duty,  he  will  hold  his  position  under  hottest  fire,  and 
never  leave  or  lose  a  battle  through  any  excess  of  hysteria  or 
thinness  of  skin.  He  is  strong  in  controversy,  sound  in  consulta- 
tion, nvincible  in  argument,  fertile  in  expedience." 
***** 

CHTCAr-~  TRIBUNE,  February  3,  1914: 

!'r  ,   Hoyne's  fearlessness  is  well  known." 
***** 

CHICAGO  POST,  November  20,  1915: 

"With    the    conviction    of     *  *     State's    Attorney    Maclay 

Hoyne  adds  another  memorable  victory  to  his  list  of  convictions. 
Friends  of  Mr.  Hoyne  begin  to  hail  him  as  the  greatest  district 
attorney  in  the  United  States,  and  predict  a  brilliant  political 
future."  ***** 

CARTER  H.  HARRISON: 

"No  power  on  earth  can  ever  swerve  Maclay  Hoyne  from 
doing  his  duty  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience.  No 
man  or  set  of  men,  no  interest  or  newspaper,  will  be  able  to  give 
him  orders.  The  dominant  quality  of  Maclay  Hoyne's  makeup  is 
his  independence. 

"He  fought  Chicago's  fight  against  the  great  gas  and  telephone 
corporations.  It  required  rugged  independence,  strength  of  char- 
acter and  great  ability  to  win  for  the  people  in  those  contests. 
Hoyne  won.  That  tells  the  story." 

Fifty-eight 


CHICAGO  HERALD,  January  15,  1915: 

"State's  Attorney  Hoyne's  latest  move  against  the  car  system 
suggests  that  he  counts  that  day  lost  whose  low  descending  sun 
doesn't  see  him  start  something  new." 

***** 

CHICAGO  EXAMINER,  January  3,  1916: 

"Mr.  Hoyne  s  official  standing  has  been  well  established  in 
Cook  County.  He  has  shown  himself  to  be  fearless,  competent, 
energetic,  and  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  those  subtle  influences 
which  so  often  seek  to  shackle  prosecuting  officers.  He  is 
entitled  to  the  praise  of  all  the  law-abiding  people  of  Cook 

County,  regardless  of  party." 

***** 

CHICAGO  EXAMINER,  May  21,  1913: 

"He  is  the  first  really  and  truly  honest  State's  Attorney  that 

has  blessed  this  town  for  twenty  years." 
*       *       *       *       * 

CHICAGO  AMERICAN,  May  26,  1913: 

"Maclay  Hoyne  in  office  has  a  single  client — the  People — and 

he  is  faithful  to  the  interests  of  his  client." 

***** 

JUDGE  KICKAM  SCANLAN: 

"This  man  is  honest  and  above  price.  He  possesses  courage 
of  a  high  order.  Improper  influence,  no  matter  how  subtle,  will 

not  affect  him." 

****** 

JUDGE  MARCUS  M.  KAVANAGH: 

"He  has  been  ready  to  undertake  the  most  unpopular  prosecu- 
tions the  moment  he  believed  they  were  right.  He  has  not  hesi- 
tated to  attack  guilt,  in  no  matter  how  high  a  place  it  stood 
intrenched,  and  to  bring  down  the  guilty,  no  matter  how  power- 
ful the  influences  that  stood  behind  them.  He  seems  to  have  no 
friend  to  whom  he  is  under  obligation,  save  the  law  of  the  state 
and  nation,  and  no  lamp  for  his  feet  save  his  oath  of  office." 


Maclay  Hoyne  —  "County  Attorney" 


By  Peter  Reinberg 
(President,  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Cook  County) 

To  the  average  Illinois  citizen  Cook  County  is  Chicago;  yet  in  the  county 
are  no  less  than  seventy-eight  other  cities  and  villages.  Chicago  is  forty  miles 
from  Elgin.  Elgin  is  partly  in  Cook  County.  Outside  Chicago  are  numerous 
townships,  containing  794  square  miles,  or  508,160  acres,  with  a  population 
nearly  double  that  of  any  other  county.  Cook  is  not  only  the  wealthiest 
and  most  populous  county,  it  also  is  a  leading  agricultural  county. 

In  volume  and  consequence  the  county's  legal  business  (exclusive  of 
criminal  matters)  is  commensurate  with  its  wealth,  population  and  impor- 
tance. Its  law  questions  are  as  varied  as  its  activities;  as  intricate  as  our 
antiquated  system  of  local  government.  County  litigation  often  involves 
immense  sums  of  money.  It  is  generally  affected  with  vital  public  interest 
as  well. 

Mr.  Hoyne  has  attended  to  the  county's  legal  affairs.  No  other  state's 
attorney  ever  did.  He  has  done  so  without  fee  or  reward.  Moreover,  to  the 

Fifty-nine 


service  of  the  county  and  of  its  numerous  officers,  institutions  and  depart- 
ments he  has  brought  the  ability  of  a  careful,  experienced  and  skillful  munici- 
pal corporation  attorney. 

Mr.  Hoyne  has  served  the  county  efficiently.  The  quality  of  his  services, 
his  hearty  co-operation  and  the  manner  in  which  the  influence  of  his  office  has 
been  utilized  for  the  public  good  are  testified  to  by  county  officials  generally. 

For  example,  George  E.  Quinlan,  county  superintendent  of  highways,  says: 

"The  highway  department  has  had  most  efficient  service  from 
its  legal  adviser;  incidentally,  it  and  the  county  are  greatly 
indebted  to  Mr.  Hoyne  for  invaluable  aid  in  behalf  of  good 
roads." 

Melville  G.  Holding,  president  of  the  county  civil  service  commission, 
has  said: 

"Not  only  has  Mr.  Hoyne  been  our  efficient  legal  adviser,  but 
also  his  advice  to  this  commission  appears  always  to  be  founded 
upon  the  correct  principle  stated  in  one  of  his  opinions,  as  fol- 
lows:   'All  citizens  who  have  the  welfare  of  their  country  at  heart 
are  agreed  that  the  civil  service  act  makes  for  good  government. 
*     *     *     For  this  very  reason  care  must  be  taken  that  no  abuses 
creep  in  under  cover  of  the  law  which  would  impair  its  efficiency, 
or,  if  countenanced  and  permitted,  might  lead  to  its  repeal.'  " 
Statements  to  the  same  effect  by  other  county  officers  might  be  multi- 
plied; but  the  quality  of  Mr.  Hoyne's  services  as  county  attorney  is  sufficiently 
attested  by  the  record. 

This  record  is  both  interesting  and  voluminous.  It  is  an  enviable  record 
of  corrected  abuses,  efficient  achievement  and  impartial  administration. 

Nor  does  the  record  end  here,  for  Mr.  Hoyne,  first  of  all  state's  attor- 
neys, has  kep^  his  office  open  to  all  township  and  school  officers — without 
expense  to  th^^n  and  without  fee  or  reward  to  himself.  Let  us  remember  that 
in  the  county,  outside  Chicago,  there  are  twenty-nine  supervisors,  seventy- 
five  highway  commissioners,  twenty-nine  town  clerks,  twenty-eight  town 
assessors  (exclusive  of  deputies),  twenty-nine  town  collectors,  ninety-one  jus- 
tices of  the  peace,  sixty-nine  police  magistrates,  eighty-three  constables,  and 
896  school  officers— total,  1,329. 

When  Hoyne  Smashed  the  Arson  Trust 

CHICAGO   DAY  BOOK,  October  6,  1915: 

In  January,  1913,  State's  Attorney  Hoyne  started  a  fight  on 
the  arson  trust  of  Chicago,  and  thereby  hangs  a  tale  of  special 
interest  to  every  property  owner  who  pays  fire  insurance.  Every 
paper  in  Chicago  heralded  a  big  slash  in  fire  risk  rates  a  short 

time  ago.     The  cost  of  fire  protection  dropped   about  one-third. 

***** 

CHICAGO  HERALD,  September  11,  1915: 

NEW  LOW  RECORD  IN  FIRE  LOSSES  SET  BY  CHICAGO 

BOTTOM  MARK  FOR  AUGUST  OF  ANY  PREVIOUS  YEAR 
WAS    ESTABLISHED   LAST    MONTH    WITH    $78,950 


F'IRE-BUGS  ARE  ROUTED 


The  fire-bugs  apparently  have  moved  out  of  Chicago.  Pos- 
sibly they  have  gone  to  St.  Louis.  Anyway,  the  Mound  City 
police  think  so.  *  *  *  Whether  the  police  are  right  or  wrong, 


Sixty 


Chicago's  fire  losses  recently  have  been  decreasing  very  rapidly 
since  the  arson  prosecutions  by  State's  Attorney  Hoyne.  The 
Chicago  losses  in  the  last  five  months  are  only  41  per  cent  of 
what  they  were  in  the  same  period  last  year.  *  *  *  "I  don't 
remember  a  month  when  we  did  less  fire-fighting  than  in  Au- 
gust," said  Marshall  O'Connor  yesterday,  as  he  "knocked  wood." 
If  as  good  a  showing  can  be  made  during  the  remainder 
of  the  year,  why  not  advertise  Chicago  because  of  its  increasing 
freedom  from  fires. 

***** 

DAILY    NEWS— Editorial— September    13,    1915: 

"Persons  who  have  given  time  and  thought  to  the  subject  of 
fire  prevention  will  attach  significance  to  the  fact  announced  at 
the  tenth  annual  convention  of  the  Fire  Marshals'  Association 
of  North  America  by  Illinois  Fire  Marshal  Walter  H.  Bennett, 
that  during  the  first  half  of  1915  losses  by  fire  in  Illinois  were 
$1,000.000  less  than  they  were  during  the  first  half  of  1914,  and 

that  in  1914  they  were  $2,000.000  less  than  in  the  preceding  year." 
***** 

FIRE  MARSHAL  WALTER  H.  BENNETT,  March  6,  1914: 

"I  wish  especially  to  commend  Maclay  Hoyne  and  his  assist- 
ants for  the  able  manner  in  which  they  have  conducted  the  inves- 
tigation of  incendiary  fires  in  Cook  County.  The  people  are  for- 
tunate in  having  an  official  of  such  unquestionable  ability  and 
character."  *  *  *  *  * 

CHICAGO   INTER  OCEAN— Editorial— March  22,  1913: 
"WHO   PAYS   FIRE  LOSSES? 

"State's  Attorney  Hoyne  and  his  assistants  are  doing  some 
excellent  and  sorely  needed  work  toward  the  repression  of  the 
arson  industry  in  this  community.  The  men  now  under  arrest 
and  to  be  arrested  must,  of  course,  be  presumed  innocent  until 
proved  guilty. 

"Arson  is  a  crime  notoriously  hard  to  prove — to  convist  men 
of  committing — to  bring  to  due  punishment.  Incendiary  fires 
often  destroy  the  means  of  their  origin,  and  the  evidence  is 
largely  circumstantial.  But  the  influence  which  most  often  per- 
mits to  escape  punishment'  men  guilty  of  incendiary  fires  is  the 
widespread  public  delusion  about  who  pays  for  fire  losses. 

"The  only  way  to  get  lower  insurance  rates  is  to  have  fewer 
fires.  The  insurance  companies  must  collect  from  the  public 
every  cent  they  pay  out  for  losses.  They  have  no  other  place 
to  get  it.  And  rates  are  based  on  losses.  Lower  rates  result 
from  fewer  losses  and  fewer  losses  result  from  fewer  fires.  And 
the  more  men  guilty  of  arson  sent  to  the  penitentiary  the  fewer 
will  be  the  fires,  the  fewer  the  losses  and  the  lower  the  rates." 


Gunmen  Convicted  By  Hoyne 

SENT  TO  PRISON  FOR  ROBBERY  WITH  A  GUN: 

6083,  James  Kirkpatrick;  6083,  Edward  Starr;  6083,  Albert  Ebekson; 
5949.  William  Dickman:  6168.  Louis  Kasper;  6168,  Dan  Kilcummings;  6413. 
Joseph  O'Shea;  6413,  Clarence  Schneider;  6343,  Edward  Short;  6134,  John 
Culp:  6554,  Henry  Jensen:  6880,  Joseph  Blank:  6704,  Fred  Reggentineo:  6849, 
William  Woods;  "6533,  Harry  O'Neill:  6533.  William  O'Halloran;  7045,  Denny 
J.  Cossey;  7045,  Charles  Burton;  7227,  Sam  Borsok;  6473,  James  Tribble; 

Sixty-one 


7060,  Robert  Starr;  7209,  William  Sudds;  7542,  Otis  Webb;  3225,  Frank 
Brodie;  7480,  Edward  O.  Dorman;  7480,  Frank  Hartman;  /480,  Louis  Smith; 
7479  Harry  Lollingsworth;  7494,  William  O'Leary;  7771,  Kelly  Doly;  7947, 
David  O'Connell;  7947,  Eugene  Solome;  8263,  Harry  Kramer;  8263,  Charles 
Kramer;  8263,  Harry  Fein;  8263,  Alexander  Brodie;  7759,  Luke  Ward;  7759, 
Robert  McCann;  8325,  John  McElroy;  8325,  Herbert  Robinson;  8325,  Frank 
Williams;  8447,  Frank  Kelly;  8447,  Tony  Campagna;  8031,  Charles  Bennett; 
7873,  Martin  McMahon;  7873,  John  McMahon ;  8554,  George  Martin;  8473,  John 
Parilla;  8473,  Harry  Waller;  9051,  Leo  Smith;  9105,  Fred  Hoffman ;  9132,  John 
Moore;  8522,  William  Hunter;  8522,  Joseph  Johnson;  9111.  Frank  Zopt;  8976. 
George  Williams;  99958,  James  Ryan;  99958,  James  Harris;  100123,  Martie  Heine; 
100314,  Peter  Gorski;  100475,  James  Perry;  1C0689,  Thomas  Burke;  100689, 
Claude  Rose;  100624,  Frank  Haskins;  100783,  Charles  S.  Wood;  100624, 
Clarence  Mc^'urray;  100624,  Harry  Wright;  100658,  Peter  Jensen;  100658, 
Harry  Evans;  99286,  Ernest  Caprietti;  101755,  William  Dowd;  1273,  Louis 
Ewe;  1440,  Adolph  Newetz;  1086,  John  Lipowski;  1775,  Thomas  Cunning- 
ham; 2094,  Robert  Wood;  1961,  Post  Delmas;  2171,  Anton  Zelewsky;  1636, 
John  McCullough;  2171,  Mike  Kobus;  2085,  Lawrence  Foley;  1731,  Francise 
Inadolino;  2268,  Harry  Galvin;  2634,  William  Hamilton;  2634,  Joseph  Bern- 
stein; 2634,  James  McAlery;  1986,  Michael  Moore;  2334,  Frank  Spry;  2993, 
George  Barr;  2993,  Jack  Boes;  2993,  John  McNabb;  2808,  James  Klein;  2808, 
Charles  Walters;  2972,  James  Burns;  2972,  Leslie  Kennedy;  2817,  Lee. 
Werdell;  2815,  William  Gills;  3259,  William  Daniels;  3259,  Fred  Jackson; 
3066,  John  Lowe;  2850,  Clem  Chester;  2850,  Max  Bremer;  3391,  William 
Fussey;  3267,  James  Howard;  3513,  William  Dean;  2978,  Edward  O'Brien; 
3059,  George  Jaeger;  3743,  Mortus  Butler;  3410,  Dave  Feeley;  3662,  Fred 
White;  3613,  Lloyd  Goodrich;  3613,  Eddie  Connors;  3620,  Emil  Johnson; 
3432,  Charles  Roberts;  3414,  Jesse  Goore;  4248,  Dolphus  Brown;  3846, 
Edward  Rahn;  3831,  Paul  Springer;  4441,  Fred  Mulbach;  4441,  Carl  Futzel; 
4313,  Harry  Wilson;  4313,  Carl  Nixon;  4315,  Morril  Crane;  4452,  Otto  Kep- 
nick;  4452,  Emil  Kepnick;  1908,  John  Smith;  9386,  John  Gasper;  4451,  Anton 
Chnelik;  4451,  Mike  Kallas;  4326,  John  Murphy;  4326,  George  Triantopolla;  4538. 
John  Antalek;  4538,  John  Solpis;  4545,  John  Antolek;  4326,  Russell  Edwards; 
4326,  George  Raymond;  4321,  Thomas  King;  4532,  Charles  McBride;  4689,  Will- 
iam Williams;  4514,  Andrew  Murrin,  4108,  Matthew  White;  4108,  John  Robar; 
9867,  William  Marshall;  9867,  John  Redmond;  4109,  Charles  Askin ;  4826,  Robert 
Schnenk;  4826,  Harry  R.  Baker;  5068.  Arthur  Brown;  5068,  Frank  Walker; 
4925,  Henry  Pettisch ;  4923,  George  Niacarris;  4967,  James  Ryan;  4989,  George 
Smith ;  4989,  Ormond  Westgate ;  5245,  Alonzo  A.  Holbert ;  5240,  Walter  Chamski ; 
5561,  Charles  Percy;  5196,  Frank  Pasieta;  5168,  Kiyus  Rosenthal;  5168,  Charles 
Boomund;  5393,  Harry  Woods;  5767.  John  Young;  5766,  Chris  Klein;  5343.  Nels 
Inglebritsen ;  5541,  Tony  Diamond;  5575,  Thomas  Wardell;  5444,  Clyde  McCosky; 
5527,  Edward  Krenheller ;  5576,  James  Sullivan ;  340,  Joseph  Constantino ;  5976. 
John  Neimec;  5820,  John  Ford;  5820,  Thomas  Ford;  6016.  Henry  Thomas;  5518, 
William  Hartnett;  5518,  Frank  Monroe;  5408,  Frank  Heller;  5408,  Thomas  Innes; 
5569,  Herbert  Ramsden;  5515,  Arthur  Domrose;  99628,  Michael  La  Porta; 
100253,  Samuel  Doty;  2175,  Tony  Post;  1965,  Tony  Di  Giorgi;  2368,  Anton 
Swanson;  2367,  Joseph  Swager;  3858,  John  Borcher;  3822,  Lewis  Lasert;  5162, 
Luther  E.  Widen;  5365,  Robert  Thomas;  4266,  Walter  J.  Raus;  5267,  William 
Richardson;  5985,  Ohan  Virknickon;  4977,  John  Strobl;  6383,  Thomas  Mastursi; 
6174,  George  F.  Keller;  6166,  Edward  Jones;  6239,  George  H.  Britain;  6532, 
Andrea  Ma/zitilli;  7106,  Cosina  Arciszewski;  7325,  James  Ryan;  7761.  Oliver 
Bennett;  8563,  Angelo  Santucci:  8728,  Frank  Crowley;  9099,  Thomas  Clark; 
100089,  Joe  Williams;  100089,  George  Kebler:  99994.  Clifford  Fail:  100245. 
Stanley  Rychlewski:  100245.  Theodore  Zamira?  100350,  John  Foley;  100689, 
Thomas  Burke:  100787,  Benjamin  Wilhelm:  100444.  Walter  Scott:  8363, 
Harley  Carter;  8244,  Albert  Lewis;  8561,  William  Brown;  8473,  Edward 

Sixty-two 


Brown;  8628,  Lafor  Fisher;  8652,  Max  Smalek;  9051,  Michael  Riley;  9193, 
Harry  E.  Hall;  9111,  Harry  Kirk;  8052,  Howard  O'Hara;  9156,  Charles 
Wenzloff;  9432,  Levi  Lounz;  9087,  John  Slawinski;  9087,  Peter  Pawelsky; 
7540,  Joseph  Kelly;  7540,  Joseph  Miller;  6332,  John  Foley;  6866,  Daniel 
Reilly;  6866,  Peter  Sassnick;  8052,  Robert  Luby;  8052,  Russell  Gregory; 
8052,  Frank  Teall;  8030,  Frank  Burda;  8192,  Charles  L.  Tuiny;  8192,  A.  W. 
Von  Brandt;  7984,  William  Bailey;  8405,  Pat  Holden;  8179,  Frank  Walzak; 
8325,  John  McElroy;  8248,  Maynor  Johnson;  8049,  Edward  Kadza;  8049, 
Edward  Haley;  8049,  Harry  Grening;  8058,  Sidney  Maguire;  8517,  James 
Desondro;  8517,  Laddie  Kavorik;  101345,  Ira  Lentz;  100840,  Albert  Boer; 
1273,  Harold  Bowling;  1086,  John  Platka;  1086,  Walter  Klazywski;  2095. 
Leslie  Moore;  1879,  .Martin  Ryan;  2190,  Ansel  Cobb;  2190,  Lawrence  Ray- 
born;  1986,  John  Burke;  2866,  Louis  Schneider;  2858,  David  Kreider;  2858, 
Varol  Lunell;  3556,  Sherman  M.  Schoene;  3606,  John  Crossings;  2369,  100840, 
Albert  Boer;  4212,  4211,  4255,  4256,  Henry  Fernekes;  4441,  Thomas  Devlin; 
4313,  4315,  Lawrence  Halvey;  5114,  John  Finnelly;  4925,  John  Egglebrechl: 
4185,  Fred  Feulner;  5426,  George  Colbeck;  5423,  Edward  Jordan;  5428,  Joe 
Green;  5763,  Patrick  J.  Fahey;  5637,  George  White;  6168,  Fred  Nelson;  6332, 
Edward  Burns;  6332,  Ray  Mahan;  6672,  Frank  Jackson;  6394,  William 
Hickey;  6672,  Newton  Florence;  6880,  Dan  Shapiro. 

Comment  on  Hoyne's  Battle  with  Police  Crime  Heads 

CHICAGO   HERALD— Editorial— August   12,   1915: 

A   FAIR   TRIAL;  A  JUST   VERDICT 

The  conviction  of  two  more  police  officers  on  charges  of 
"graft"  emphasizes  the  fact  that  such  practices  are  growing 
more  and  more  dangerous  in  Chicago.  A  few  more  such  signal 
vindications  of  the  power  of  the  law  to  reach  and  punish  such 
malefactors  should  go  far  toward  eliminating  the  last  remnants 
of  the  vicious  system. 

CHICAGO   EXAMINER,   December   16,   1915: 

Chicago  differs  from  most  other  American  cities  that  have 
had  to  deal  with  the  faithless  police  officials.  Here  the  ordinary 
processes  of  law  have  been  found  sufficient,  under  the  state's 
attorney's  able  guidance,  to  destroy  a  treasonable  conspiracy 
against  the  ends  of  justice  and  to  bring  the  conspirators,  without 
regard  to  their  former  station,  one  by  one,  within  the  peniten- 
tiary's shadow.  *  *  *  This  necessary  purging  of  the  police 
department  is  in  the  interest  of  every  member  of  the  force  who 
is  mindful  of  his  oath  of  office,  and  whose  integrity  is  proof 
against  the  wiles  of  the  criminal  element.  It  is  also  vitally  essen- 
tial to  the  community's  welfare  and  peace  of  mind.  Chicago's 
police  force  is  overwhelmingly  made  up  of  honest  men,  and  this 
applies  to  all  ranks,  from  the  humblest  patrolman  up  to  the 
higher  officials.  It  is  imperative  for  the  maintenance  of  real 
discipline  on  the  force,  and  for  the  safety  of  the  great  body  of 
citizens  whose  lives  and  property  are  literally  dependent  upon 
police  protection,  that  traitors  should  be  weeded  out.  The 
police  protection,  that  traitors  should  be  weeded  out. 
***** 

On  June  28,   1915,  the  Citizens'  Association  addressed  a  letter  to  Maclay 
Hoyne,  in  part  as  follows: 

On  account  of  the  constant  temptation  which  successive 
mayors  of  Chicago  have  seldom  resisted,  to  use  the  police 
department  as  a  political  machine;  and  on  account  of  the  great 

Sixty-three 


temptation  in  the  line  of  "graft"  which  besets  police  officers, 
there  is  a  constant  and  powerful  tendency  toward  laxity  of 
discipline  and  inefficiency  in  that  department 

Being  to  some  extent  aware  of  the  demoralization  which  has 
prevailed  in  certain  portions  of  the  police  department,  we  are  in 
a  position  to  fully  appreciate  the  great  importance  of  the  work 
which  you  have  been  doing  in  the  direction  of  exposing  and 
punishing  policemen  who  have  furnished  protection  to  criminals. 
We  especially  congratulate  you  upon  the  recent  conviction  of 
police  officers  formerly  connected  with  the  Maxwell  Street 
Station,  as  the  Citizens'  Association  had,  prior  to  the  indictment 
of  those  policemen,  learned  of  facts  which  convinced  us  that 
the  police  administration  in  that  part  of  the  city  was  devoted 
rather  to  the  protection  of  criminals  than  to  the  prevention  of 
crime. 

We  believe  that  by  driving  crooked  policemen  out  of  the 
police  department  and  herding  them  into  the  penitentiary,  where 
they  properly  belong,  you  are  performing  a  notable  service. 
***** 

CHICAGO   EXAMINER,  May  20,  1913: 

Whitman   in   New  York  and   Hoyne  in  Chicago  have   demon- 
strated that   an   honest   man  in   the  state's  attorney's   office  can 
crush  any  such  conspiracy. 
CHICAGO  HERALD,  July  25,  1914: 

The  public  is  tired  of  the  old  way  of  playing  the  game. 
Henceforth  the  rewards  of  public  place  and  confidence  are  going 
to  be  more  and  more  for  the  man  who  plays  it  on  the  theory 
that  energy,  efficiency  and  public  spirit  are  the  main  things  to 

be   considered. 
CHICAGO  EXAMINER— Editorial— June  16,   1915: 

Of  all  the  cases  that  come  to  a  prosecutor,  the  most  difficult 
are  those  concerning  police  officials.  Their  positions  give  them 
a  power  over  the  criminals  with  whom  they  deal,  and  politics, 
plays  its  part  in  suppressing  evidence  and  getting  witnesses  out 
of  the  way.  The  outcome  of  the  trials  shows  that,  however  diffi- 
cult, the  cleaning  up  of  a  city  police  department  is  not  impos- 
sible. One  by  one  the  old  time  crime  brokers  and  privilege 
sellers  are  being  driven  from  behind  the  barricades  that  used  to 
be  deemed  impregnable.  The  power  of  pull  and  politics,  the 
hold  on  the  strings  that  used  to  move  courts  and  criminals  alike 
to  the -aid  of  the  threatened  tenderloin  czar,  have  been  broken. 
The  new  order  of  things  is  due  largely  to  the  efforts  of  State's 
Attorney  Hoyne,  who  cast  aside  the  political  leading  strings  that 
formerly  held  the  prosecutor's  office  to  the  work  of  convicting 

only  such  thieves  and  thugs  as  lacked  both  money  and  influence. 
***** 

CHICAGO   TRIBUNE— October  20,   1914— Editorial: 

I  want  it  understood  that  I  am  thoroughly  in  earnest  about 
what  I  said  yesterday.  Since  I  have  been  in  office  I  have  not 
indulged  in  idle  boasts  and  when  I  said  that  the  present  detective 
bureau  was  an  organization  of  crooks  I  meant  it,  and  I  will  prove 
it. — State's  Attorney  Hoyne. 

If  State's  Attorney  Hoyne  means  what  he  here  is  quoted  as 
saying,  if  he  intends  to  go  ahead  without  fear  or  favor,  especially 
favor,  for  there  is  no  doubt  of  Mr.  Hoyne's  pluck,  he  will  do  a 
memorable  service  to  this  community. 

Sixty-four 


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superbteion  of  Cfjamberlm 


294 


